All posts by Sandrine Lemouton

2020

BRENT BARRE
from Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute

Brent Barre is a research associate with Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute where he currently works with multiple SARS-CoV2 virus studies, in addition to other infectious diseases as well as chemical agents.

We are pleased to share an interview with Brent, who kindly gave us some of his valuable time to share his thoughts about his current research.

INTERVIEW:

Q: What is your experience with infectious disease research ?
A: I work with different pathogens (viral pathogen (COVID, Flu), bacterial pathogens (anthrax, tularemia), biological pathogen (ricin)) that require testing in a BSL3 facility. Most of these are classified as infectious diseases.

Q: How long have you been doing this type of work ?
A: I have been in CMO/CROs for more than 17 years.

Q: How long has Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute been doing this type of work?
A: Lovelace has been working with infectious disease models over 70 years.

Q: What is your experience with SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19)?
A: I currently work on multiple active SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) studies on-going in our BSL3 facilities.

Q: How would you describe the current research environment for infectious diseases, for example SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) which is currently on the rise?
A: Given the current global concern of SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19), it fosters a more collaborative research environment as we are all working toward helping our own communities to find treatment and vaccine options for patients.

Q: What are the clinical signs or endpoints that you are looking for in your SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) studies and why?
A: We are looking at respiratory outcomes such as respiratory rate (RR), tidal volume (TV), minute volume (MV), and accumulated volume (AV) as well as temperature for onset of fever which are currently used in the clinics to diagnose COVID-19 patients and determine disease severity.

Q:  How are you picking your animal models for the SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) studies?
A: To begin our SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) studies we began looking at models that showed promise in previous SARS-CoV and influenza studies. Some examples of currently used subjects in the follow, where each have their own pros and cons for the various research goals each institution is working on.

  • Humanized ACE2 transgenic mouse model
  • Syrian hamster model
  • Ferret
  • Common marmoset
  • African Green Monkey
  • Cynomolgus macaque
  • Rhesus macaque

Q: What determines a good subject for SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) studies?
A: Certain selection criteria are used when looking at any potential subject for inclusion in a research study. In regard to SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19), we are looking at models that show the following:

  • ACE2 receptor homology
  • ACE2 receptor distribution
  • Viral replication similarities
  • Clinical signs and disease severity
  • Immune response similarities
  • etc.

Q: Does Lovelace use large or small animals for their SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) studies?
A: Both, as both have their own advantages and disadvantages to study the disease in its entirety.

Q: Given the symptoms in the news of COVID-19 patients, how is that like your models?
A: Given the unknowns of COVID-19 along with the wide range of symptoms seen in COVID-19 patients depending on various demographics, model development and symptom assessment are ongoing. Determination of how those symptoms may or may not apply to COVID patients is complicated and requires accurate physiological data collection from animal models.

Q: What diagnostic tools do you use?
A: We use various plethysmography chambers to look at volumetric data. Common respiratory outcomes we measure are respiratory rate (RR), tidal volume (TV), and minute volume (MV). Additionally, we look at temperature changes through telemetry and data logger systems.

Q: Why is RR, TV, MV, and AV important to your SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) studies?
A:  Physiological data such as RR, TV, and MV may be used to calculate pathogen presentation to a subject or used to assess reaction during and/or after a therapy is presented. Accurate baseline measurements are also critical for comparative analysis of individual subjects.

Q: What type of measurements do you collect post-dosing?
A: Post-exposure we look at behavior, activity, and temperature changes as well as lavage, histology, etc.

Q: Once the subject becomes sick do you look at the changes in TV, MV, RR, temperature, activity, etc.?
A:  Physiological observations are critical to assess reaction to both pathogens and therapies. For example, TV, MV, and RR data may be collected immediately after a therapy is presented, while subjects are periodically monitored for RR, temperature, activity, etc. over a longer period after treatment.

Q: Do you look at higher risk individuals?
A: With some diseases, we will look at additional risk factors. In example, we use genetically modified subjects to better understand and additional risk factors or comorbidities.

Q: Is real-time analysis valuable for your studies?
A: YES. We use real-time accumulated volume (AV) measurements to calculate dosage.

We may also measure RR, TV, and MV during pathogen or treatment exposures. The real-time availability and accuracy of these recordings allows for accurate dosing on a per subject basis.

Additionally, the use of real-time temperature measurements through implanted telemetry, with fever detection, is extremely helpful to research the progression and transmission of different diseases or test articles.

Q: What is your opinion of the pros and cons of implanted verses non-invasive telemetry recording systems?
A:

With large animal subjects, there are more options when working with infectious disease models compared to working with smaller subjects like rodent models. Large animals allow for the use of both implantable and non-invasive telemetry systems, while smaller subjects are restricted to implantable telemetry devices, when working outside the respiratory realm which utilizes plethysmography chambers to measure respiratory volumes.

Being able to use implantable telemetry for chronic studies, or experiments requiring core body temperature, is beneficial where as studies requiring respiratory end points only allow us to utilize non-invasive telemetry options.

The use of non-invasive equipment allows for Lovelace to take advantage of the 3 Rs in research (reduce, reuse, and refine).

In both cases, the advantage of telemetry over logging systems is real-time observation of clinical symptoms, as well as reductions in user time to retrieve and monitor data from BSL-3 facilities throughout the duration of the study.

Q: Is there any specific value to your research from working directly with emka TECHNOLOGIES?
A: One of the emka systems we utilize is the emkaPACK4G respiratory impedance belt (RIP) system, to collect our respiratory volumes. This is critical, as we are using a head-only exposure design, making the RIP system the only method to collect volumetric data during exposure.

Q: Do you find the emka TECHNOLOGIES hardware to easily work across large and small animals?
A: The ability to use the same software set-up and many of the hardware components across study designs and subject models, allow for a more cost-effective core facility to investigate infectious diseases and other applications.

Q: Does emka TECHNOLOGIES specifically add value to your research projects?
A: Personalization of service from emka’s sales and support teams is excellent.

Emka is available for real-time assistance with experiments. The knowledge and ability of each individual emka representative allows for efficient and effective support while working with the same people. This type of service allows us to create a relationship with the emka reps that we learn to trust, when helping with our various research projects and goals. It is very rare that I ask a question and do not receive an answer on the spot, and when the answer is not readily known the response time is still under 24 hours.

THANK YOU, BRENT BARRE, FOR THIS INTERVIEW!

 

2020

As one of the oldest clinical indicators of disease in mammals, temperature is a crucial parameter to monitor, especially for infectious diseases where an acute fever is one of the first symptoms.

Temperature monitoring provides insight into:

» Inflammatory response
» Therapeutic response
» Immunity status and response
» Stress response

Infectious diseases such as COVID-19, influenza, plague, Ebola, and anthrax, affect multiple organ systems with a fever component. In an interview, Brent Barre from Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute explains how he currently works on multiple active SARS-CoV2 studies, using telemetry and plethysmography to look at temperature for onset of fever and respiratory outcomes on various animal models.

 

The easyTEL implanted telemetry system monitors and captures in real-time core body temperature and activity from small to large animals (80g to 10kg or more) such as Syrian Hamsters, Rats, Ferrets, Pigs, Dogs, or Primates.

Temperature and activity are recorded continuously for up to 150 days in rodents and 285 days in large animals.  

These implants are commonly used for infectious disease natural history studies.

Quick analysis

When fever or hypothermia is detected, system can send e-mail to preset lists of technicians or directors (for treatment or animal welfare euthanasia criteria), display a flashing warning on monitoring screens and activate a sound alarm on monitoring computers.

In IOX2 acquisition software,  onset of fever or hypothermia is detected if current temperature exceeds or decreases below preset thereshol. The threshold can use the Standard Deviation or the raw temperature value as the criteria.

Reliable data in group-housed subjects

» Continuous real-time data storage and display
» Local and remote continuous monitoring and analysis of temperature
» Implants turned on and off remotely
» No need for technicians to ever enter room to record or download data
» Robust design for use in BL3 and BL4 environments
» Group housing of up to 48 subjects in same room

Additional endpoints such as ECG or Blood Pressure are easily added within the same platform.

Common applications

2020

KIMBERLY LONDER BS
from the University of Maryland, Baltimore

Kimberly Londer BS works at the BioMET Center, in the University of Maryland. She is multi-focal and works with the orthopedic department and as a cardiac research assistant. She is using ecgTUNNEL to capture ECG on young mice, without anesthesia.

We are pleased to share an interview with Kimberly, who kindly shared her thoughts about her research with us.

INTERVIEW:

Q: What interest you the most about your research ?

A: I am very interested in how daily aspects of life, i.e. diet, sleep, and exercise affect the heart and implications of heart disease with age. I was drawn to this type of research from an artistic background. I enjoy creating/designing models and some of the newest heart treatments include 3D printed clamps and valves that assist with atrial and/or ventricular function.

Q: What does the general landscape of this research area currently look like ?

A: Much of the research involved in heart disease is focused on the role of calcium movement in and out of cells and how mitochondrial changes, whether genetic/congenital, or as a result of injury, can alter heart function.

Q: What are the real-world implications of your research?

A: The use of emka’s non-invasive ecgTUNNEL allows me to phenotype animals for various heart conditions. With this information, the BioMET research team is developing treatment options for a double transgenic mouse model with atrial fibrillation (AF). It is hoped that these treatments could be developed further for use in human patients suffering from AF.

Q: How long have you been an emka TECHNOLOGIES user? 

A: About 6 months.

Q: How has using ecgTUNNEL helped with improving the translatability and reproducibility of your research?

A: Using ecgTUNNEL has been more-so groundbreaking rather than “improving” as there is few systems, publications, or data that exists on small animal ECG without the use of anesthesia or telemetry. The data captured from the ECG is easily reproducible with an appropriate acclimation period within the ecgTUNNEL prior to recording. The recordings are very clean with minimal smoothing and filtering.

Q: What were some insights that emka equipment has helped you obtain?
A: emka equipment has helped our research lab compile data of heart rates, R-R rates, QT lengths, and more in animals that are unanesthetized and without telemetry implants. This feature of emka’s equipment eliminates issues associated with other methods like lowered heart rate and increased stress.

Q: What other measurements are taken alongside ECG, and why?
A: Outside of using ECG parameters, heart tissue is analyzed for hypertrophy, fibrosis, mitochondrial function and calcium levels. Some of the mice are also put on an echocardiogram. These studies are performed to further the understanding of the mechanisms that perpetuate AF.

Q: What features of the equipment or software do you find most useful?

A: Being able to have a library of waves which you can label yourself is very helpful. It allows me to scan an entire recording for AF, ventricular disorders and other arrhythmias of interest within seconds. The different options for smoothing and wave detection are great. I enjoy being able to compare the raw data to the filtered data within the same window on the ecgAUTO program.

Q: What was the reasoning behind selecting your animal model?
A: We use a model of mouse that, with appropriate breeding scheme, is born with AF with symptoms manifesting as early as 2 months old. We are using this model in a series of AF experiments.

Q: What advice do you have for someone starting out in this research area?

A: Due to the limited research involving the true shape of the mouse ECG, I would recommend additional research outside of a regular ECG course. Mouse heart waves are different than humans due to the increased heart rate which results in the lack of a plateau phase and a “J” wave at the end of the QRS complex. This difference must be accounted for when comparing research data of mice to that of clinical data from human patients.

Q: What’s next for your lab and your research?  

A: I will continue to use the ECG to positively phenotype the mice for AF and other arrhythmias. Within the next months, we plan to administer different drugs in hopes of reducing or eliminating the burden of AF in the mice.

Q: Any specific recommendations, to finish with?
A: When putting animal in, it’s easiest to have head restraint as far back as possible. put animal in and immediately tighten side knob so that tunnel cannot move (Mice are strong enough to push top tunnel off if not done immediately) THEN, adjust head and rear restraints to desired location. Some of my calmer mice don’t even get restrained anymore, they just walk right in, and take a nap. I do always adjust rear restraint so they cannot back out but I often do not have to use head restraint. I would also recommend to:

  • Put animal in ecgTUNNEL and let sit for a few moments once or twice before actual recording begins. (2-5 min/day, a day or so prior to recording).
  • Record in a dim/dark room with limited noise or cover tunnel.
  • Use electrode gel, readings come out much clearer than without.
  • Watch for moving hands and feet! Often times, the mice push their back legs out of the whole where their tail is supposed to come. Give them a little tickle with a pen tip to get them to readjust their footing.
  • Keep cages of mice away from those on tunnel. Sounds and smells of cage mates are distracting!

THANK YOU, KIMBERLY LONDER BS, FOR THIS INTERVIEW!

If you have any questions about the use of ecgTUNNEL, please Contact Us!

 

2020

emka TECHNOLOGIES is offering on-demand trainings for your software of choice, to help you refine your use and hit the ground running when returning to your lab.

2020

Ex vivo studies provide valuable pharmacology insights across many domains.

Isolated organ or tissue systems give researchers complete environmental control (temperature, pressure, flow, perfusate, etc.) and remove the normal homeostatic regulation and whole animal influences. Such systems allow researchers to more quickly and accurately determine cause and effect in the absence of endogenous influence.

isolated heart system

Isolated heart setup and Organ perfusion systems allow researchers to investigate the heart, liver, kidney or mesenteric beds of small healthy or diseased animals as well as following drug challenges. These systems feed nutrients and oxygen to the organ after its removal from the animal. These preparations are useful because they allow for the addition of drugs (via the perfusate) and observation of their effect on the organ without the complications involved with in vivo experimentation, such as neuronal and hormonal effects from living animal.

LEARN MORE

 

emkaBATH4

 

Tissue baths or myographs are widely used to study the effects of agonists and antagonists through the measurement of tissue contractility. Dose and concentration response curves allow for quantification of a drug’s pharmacological profile and the calculation of EC50’s.

 

LEARN MORE & DISCOVER HOW TISSUE BATH ARE USED IN  PRECLINICAL RESEARCH

 

 

2020

Dear visitor,

We imagine the challenges you are presently facing due to COVID-19 outbreak, with disruption of your personal and professional lives, including the possible difficulty of working from home.

 

Hoping it can help you and be our modest contribution to everybody’s current efforts: 

. We offer our IOX and ecgAUTO customers a three-month extra license at no charge, for example to help you working from home or speed-up your current studies.To obtain the license, simply contact us.

If you need a complementary training, we organize on-demand software training: Learn more here

. We stand ready to adapt our sales and delivery processes to special situations and users, for example through hardware and/or software rental or loan. We are also available to provide you with distant help in processing your data.

. We are working with our suppliers to secure our production and limit the risk of stock-outs and delivery delays.

. Our production and logistic teams are maintaining safe distances and clean workspaces to be able to continue to deliver orders made during the current pandemic.

We wish you and your loved one’s the best of health and success in your research.

 

User presentations

Join us during SOT annual meeting in Anaheim, California for our Exhibitor-Hosted Session:

How to “Hang Ten” on the Rodent ECG in Inhalation Toxicology

Alex Carll, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., Assistant Professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine

The electrocardiogram (ECG) is a valuable tool for assessing cardiac pathophysiology and toxicity in both humans and rodents.

In this hosted session, Dr. Carll will introduce approaches to and reasons for monitoring the ECG during inhalation exposure studies in both mice and rats.

Attendees will learn how to:

  • use ecgAUTO to identify arrhythmias and clean data for heart rate variability analyses.
  • analyze ECG morphology to inform on conduction and arrhythmogenesis.
  • navigate data overload, noise, the QT:RR, detection limits, and species differences.
  • understand time- and dose-dependent relationships between ECG endpoints and inhaled toxins.

Please note that seating is limited.
We therefore encourage you to secure a place at this event by clicking here to access the registration form

 

Room 206B,
Anaheim Convention Center
Anaheim, CA 92802, USA		  

Wednesday March 18th, 2020
09:00 – 10:00 AM

 

This session is an Exhibitor-Hosted Session. Although not an official part of the SOT Annual Meeting Scientific Program, its presentation is permitted by the Society.

How to find us?

User group

Unfortunately, due to the circumstances surrounding the coronavirus, we are very sorry to announce that we must cancel our User Group Meeting.
It will be postpone later in the year. We will keep you informed as soon a possible.

 

April 2, 2020
Leuven, Belgium

flexiventJoin us for a day of scientific presentations and discussions to learn more about the flexiVent’s capabilities & flexivent applications and share your feedback with other users.

 

 

This user group meeting will be free of charge

Please note that seating is limited.
We therefore encourage you to secure a place at this event by clicking here to access the registration form

WHEN?      Thursday April 2, 2020 – Lunch will be provided

WHERE?   Leuven, Belgium (Park Inn by Radisson Hotel)

AGENDA:

9:00 a.m. Registration.
9:30 a.m. Welcome and introduction.
Frédéric Gagnon – emka TECHNOLOGIES
9:45 a.m. SCIREQ flexiVent to Measure Respiratory Mechanics.
Kévin DEVIDAL – emka TECHNOLOGIES
10:30 a.m. New flexiWare features: reporting, lung volumes.
Frédéric Gagnon – emka TECHNOLOGIES
11:00 a.m Negative Pressure Forced Expiration perturbation in mouse models of lung disease
Dr. Jeroen Vanoirbeek – KU Leuven, Belgium
11:20 a.m. Troubleshooting flexiVent Data – Case Study (part 1).
Mark Lawrence – SCIREQ Inc.
11:40 a.m. Lung function changes in mouse models of COPD
Hannelore Van Eeckhoutte – University of Ghent, Belgium
1:30 p.m. Drug delivery with the flexiVent Application
Mark Lawrence – SCIREQ Inc.
2:00 p.m. Impact of chronic exposure to e-cigarette vapors and comparison with cigarette smoke
Philippe Gosset – Institut Pasteur Lille
2:20 p.m. Whole Body Plethysmograph and large animal studies
Jérémy Appell – emka TECHNOLOGIES
3:00 p.m. Troubleshooting flexiVent Data – Case Study (Part 2).
Mark Lawrence – SCIREQ Inc.
3:30 p.m. Open session: General discussion / product &
software demonstration.
4:00 p.m. Closing Remarks.
Frédéric Gagnon – emka TECHNOLOGIES
 

 

 

 

 

 

2020

March 5-6, 2020
Bethesda, Maryland – USA

The TBI Research Symposium 2020 is a platform for scientists from local organizations to exchange data and ideas that will advance research and treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI).

As one of just 4 exhibitors during this symposium, we look forward to show our solutions for Neuro and CNS Research with the focus on TBI.

Animal models of TBI help scientists to study structural damage and functional deficits induced by brain injuries. Several studies demonstrated that long-term functional and structural changes take place up to 1 year after TBI.

emka’s solutions for TBI studies allow short but also long-term acquisition of various physiological parameters (EEG, EMG, blood pressure, respiration, temperature, activity) with:

Visit the symposium website.

User group

June 08–10, 2020
René Remie Surgical Skills Centre
Almere, The Netherlands

Transonic, René Remie Surgical Skills Centre (RRSSC) and emka TECHNOLOGIES are excited to join forces to present the first European Rodent, PV Loop & Cardiac Disease Model Workshop. The Workshop is designed to enable attendees to not only optimize their microsurgical skills, but also gain experience in Admittance-based PV measurements, and be introduced to common cardiac disease models.

Who should attend:

This course is designed for scientists and technicians who are new to rodent pressure-volume recording techniques or those who would like to refine their techniques.

The course will be from June 08-10, 2020 with one optional extra day for the induction of cardiac models (LAD occlusion and TAC).

PV-workshop-June2020

2019

Please take note that our offices will be closed during holidays:

  • Paris, France:
    Closed from Wednesday, December 25th to Wednesday, January 1st.
  • Falls Church, VA, U.S.A:
    Closed on Wednesday, December 25th and Wednesday, January 1st only.
    Open all other days.

 We wish you happy Holidays and our best wishes for the new year.

Meilleurs voeux!

2019

December 15-17, 201
Edinburgh, UK
Booth #14

emka TECHNOLOGIES is exhibiting at the Pharmacology 2019 annual meeting in Edinburgh.

If you plan to attend, I would be happy to meet you at our booth #14, to hear about your research and to discuss how our products can help meet your unique experimental needs.

Some of our products, designed to acquire physiological parameters from laboratory animals will be shown during the event:

Contact us to schedule a meeting!

 

2019

November 17-20, 2019
Phoenix, AZ
USA

This year, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the American College of Toxicology Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.

Join us to see how emka TECHNOLOGIES solutions can help you improving your toxicology studies and facing your daily challenges.

 

MOVING FROM PAPER TO DIGITAL

Come to discuss how we can accompany and guide you at all levels, whatever the modality chosen to acquire your parameters of interest. Learn more here

 

COMPLYING WITH SEND REGULATION

Submitting data in SEND format is required by the FDA starting January 2019.

To help you in this challenge, our software suite provides data tables under a SEND 3.1 compatible format for Respiratory, ECG and Vital signs domains.

Join us at our booth to discuss your needs and timeline.

Download the brochure 

Visite the website event.

User presentations

In recent years, cardiovascular safety scientists have adopted a number of analysis software platforms designed to streamline the evaluation of ECG and hemodynamic endpoints.

Post-processing with technologies such as pattern recognition can improve speed and accuracy of analysis using user-defined waveform libraries. While these technologies increase efficiency, the need to evaluate larger datasets (beat to beat), with increased depth (e.g. arrhythmia analysis), presents some conundrums: the need for significant level of human intervention, processing time, and most importantly, can be prone to high inter-user variability, a potential consequence of varying experience and analysis fatigue.

The goal of this study, presented by Mr Baublits from Amgen, during SPS Annual Meeting in Barcelona, is to leverage historical data to guide a novel pattern recognition algorithm in performing automated ECG and hemodynamic analyses.

Leveraging Machine Learning for Automated ECG and Hemodynamic Analyses 

2019

October 14-16 2019
Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom
Booth #7

This year, the main themes of the AIT conference are :

  • Industrial chemicals
  • E-Cigarettes
  • Biopharmaceuticals
  • In vitro assessments and alternatives

Join us to discuss these topics and how to improve your inhalation studies.

SMOKE & VAPE GENERATION

We will present the inExpose, that can be configured to generate cigarette smoke, e-cigarette smoke, vaping, hookah smoke, etc. to fit a wide range of applications. Various configurations are available:

  • Single cigarette chamber
  • Integrated cigarette smoking robot
  • E-cigarette vape generation

DOWNLOAD PDF “ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES – FACTORS AFFECTING PARTICLE DEPOSITION”
DOWNLOAD “CONSIDERATIONS WHEN USING RESEARCH CIGARETTES IN PRECLINICAL STUDIES”

PRECISION DOSING 

Precision dosing can be performed with the flexiVent’s ventilator-assisted aerosol delivery, in intubated small animals.

In conscious small subjects, breathing parameters and accumulated volume is monitored using plethysmography during exposure inhalation studies.

For large animals, monitoring during and post exposure can be performed by non-invasive telemetry.

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