EFFICIENT LAB ANIMAL MONITORING
ELAN
Conventional home cages restrict natural rodent
behavior, causing stress and affecting welfare and data quality. Manual welfare checks are
time-consuming, error-prone, and disturb sleeping animals.
Automated monitoring is hindered by
small cage size and daytime checks miss symptoms shown at night. As a result, side effects of
new drugs may be detected too late, or not at all.
In the ELAN project, a consortium of partners will develop a novel home cage that provides laboratory rats with space and opportunities to exhibit natural behavior, while simultaneously automatically monitoring their behavior and wellbeing. The ELAN system will consist of a newly designed home cage, various sensors and AI-based software for data acquisition, storage and analysis. Thus, the animals can be monitored 24/7, giving valuable scientific data and better and cheaper welfare monitoring.
The consortium
The project is led by Noldus Information Technology. The other partners are Radboud University Medical Centre, UNO Life Science Solutions, and Brain Builders.
The role of Noldus
Noldus will develop a monitoring technologies and software for enhanced insights into the welfare and behavior of the animals living in the cages.
Funding
This project is funded by the European Fund for Regional Development and the Province of Gelderland, as well as by the partners.
More information
To find out more, you can contact us directly.