MyVivarium: A cloud-based lab animal colony management application with near-realtime ambient sensing

Vidva, R.; Raza, M. A.; Prabhakaran, J.; Sheikh, A.; Sharp, A.; Ott, H.; Moore, A.; Fleisher, C.; Pitychoutis, P. M.; Nguyen, T. V.; Sathyanesan, A.

doi:10.1101/2024.08.10.607395

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2024.08.10.607395

MyVivarium: A cloud-based lab animal colony management application with near-realtime ambient sensing

Vidva, R.·Raza, M. A.·Prabhakaran, J.·Sheikh, A.·Sharp, A.·Ott, H.·Moore, A.·Fleisher, C.·Pitychoutis, P. M.·Nguyen, T. V.·Sathyanesan, A.

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Abstract

Management of research-animal colonies is vital for lab productivity in preclinical research. Labs often rely on inefficient paper-based or spreadsheet-based methods to manage animal colonies. Dedicated software-based solutions are generally expensive and many lack remote access. Currently available open-source alternatives are difficult to implement and deploy. These solutions also do not have the capability to track ambient variables that affect colony well-being. We built MyVivarium, an open-source database management web application to address these gaps. MyVivarium can be easily deployed to the cloud and sustained for a cost comparable to starting and maintaining a lab website. Using MyVivarium, lab members can collaboratively track individual animals within a database. Physical identities of cages map onto the database using QR codes, enabling quick and easy record-keeping on mobile devices. Lab administrators can assign tasks to users with reminders for experiments or cage maintenance. Finally, we designed a low-cost system to sense ambient humidity, temperature, vivarium worker activity, and room illuminance. These data are then sent to MyVivarium in realtime providing information relevant to colony well-being. Taken together, MyVivarium is a novel, open-source, cloud-based application template that provides a low-cost, simple, and efficient way to digitally manage research-animal colonies.

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Vidva, R., Raza, M. A., Prabhakaran, J., Sheikh, A., Sharp, A., Ott, H., Moore, A., Fleisher, C., Pitychoutis, P. M., Nguyen, T. V., Sathyanesan, A.. 2024-08-10. MyVivarium: A cloud-based lab animal colony management application with near-realtime ambient sensing. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.10.607395

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