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Training

The NGRRC provides hands-on training based on your needs. Training sessions range from 1 to 4 days depending on your needs.

During the training experience, you will have the opportunity to learn about:


Topics Covered

General building setup

  • Rooms
    • Supply rooms
      • Perishable items
        • Temperature and humidity parameters
      • Nonperishable items
    • Animal room
      • Temperature and humidity parameters
  • Cage Wash
  • Autoclave
    • Importance of steam
    • Cycles
      • Parameters
    • Sterility verification
      • Different methods of verification
        • Gravity vs. Liquid

Sterilization methods

  • Steam
  • EtO
  • Liquid
  • Discussion of when the methods are used for supplies

Building cylinders

  • Supply packing
    • Supply limitations for optimal sterility success
  • Placing mylar and tape
  • HEPA filter replacement
    • Life expectancy

Isolator building

  • Preparing supplies
    • Autoclave isolator shelves and cage components
    • Prepping inlet and outlet filters
  • Assembly procedures
    • Isolator integrity verification
  • Liquid sterilization
    • Commonly used cold sterilant
    • Application procedures
  • Basic internal setup
  • Timeline
    • Start to finish
      • When mice can be introduced

Reprocessing isolator techniques

  • Disinfection
    • Commonly used cold sterilant
    • Application procedures
  • Disassembly
  • Rebuilding
    • Verification of the potential reuse of isolator components
      • What can be reused vs. what can’t
    • Review of assembly procedures
  • Isolator sterility verification
    • Quality Control (QC) sampling
      • Frequency
        • Daily
        • Quarterly
      • Methods
        • Methods for verification
          • Sheep Blood Agar
          • Thioglycolate broth
          • Gram Stain
          • 16s PCR
  • Cage and isolator cleaning
    • Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) overview
    • Observation of staff
  • Animal shipment and receiving procedures
    • SOP overview