Learn About the Animal Behavior Core
On Thursday, January 28, 2021, at noon, during the Pathways to Success at Einstein Cores bimonthly seminar series, accessible via Zoom, learn how resources and services within Einstein’s Animal Behavior Core can aid your research. Core director, Maria Gulinello, Ph.D. will offer an overview of the core’s services and the capabilities of its facilities, while E. Richard Stanley, Ph.D., and Ian Willis, Ph.D., will share how the core has enhanced their respective research efforts.
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Maria Gulinello, Ph.D., is director of the Animal Behavior Core
The Animal Behavior Core provides staff, expertise, equipment, and dedicated testing space supporting an extensive array of assays for evaluating rodent behavior in all behavioral domains. These include rigorous, well-validated, and reproducible tests of function concerning cognitive, emotional, social, sensory, motor and reproductive outcomes.
Facility Services
Cognitive Function
- Novel Object Recognition Visuospatial – Pattern Recognition
- Social Discrimination Memory
- Spontaneous and Delayed Alternation
- Morris Water Maze
- Sensorimotor gaiting
- Radial Arm Maze
- Conditioned Taste Aversion
- Conditioned Place Preference
- Labyrinth Maze
- Barnes Maze
- Set Shifting
- Conditioned Fear
Affective / Emotional Behaviors
- Social Interaction / Social Preference
- Social Transmission of Food Preferences
- Reproductive and Mating Behavior
- Open Field (exploratory behavior, risk)
- Marble Burying (neophobia, compulsions, anxiety)
- Elevated Plus Maze (anxiety)
- Light/Dark Box (anxiety)
- Acoustic Startle
- Porsolt (Forced Swim) Test (depression)
- Tail Suspension (depression)
- Anhedonia (depression)
- Novelty Suppressed Feeding
Tests of Analgesia
- Von Frey (sensory, allodynia)
- Cold Tail Flick
- Hargreaves (thermal, pain)
Sensorimotor Function
- Open Field (activity, habituation, sensitization)
- Rotarod (motor coordination, motor learning)
- Grip Strength (sensorimotor function, muscle strength)
- Balance Beam (motor coordination)
- Visual Placing (visual acuity)
- Visual Cliff (visual acuity and depth perception)
- Pupil Dilation
- Acoustic Startle and Prepulse Inhibition
- Automated Gait Analysis
- Tape Removal Test – fine motor coordination
- Parallel Grid Floor Test
- Negative Geotaxis and Righting Reflex
- Skilled Reaching, Oromotor (sunflower seed test)
Other
- Ultrasonic Vocalizations
- Functional Observation Battery
- Estrous Cycle Staging
- Behavioral Tracking software
- Grooming
- Stereotypies
- Developmental Milestones
- Homing behavior in pups
- Olfaction
- Behavioral Spectrometer
- Taste Preferences (food and drink)
It’s Been Said
“The Animal Behavioral Core provides staff, space, and testing equipment for a wide range of behavioral assays in mice and rats. Our main goal is to support researchers with every facet of animal research, including experimental design, animal protocols, aid with analyzing and interpreting data, manuscript writing and review, and providing translational, reproducible assays. Our tests are broadly applicable to the study of heritable and developmental disorders, psychiatric syndromes, neuropathological and infectious diseases, aging, and reproductive function. The broad variety of assays available, and our ability to offer individual customization of each experiment, make our core an invaluable asset to Einstein’s research community.”
Maria Gulinello, Ph.D.
Scientific Director, Animal Behavior Core
“The Animal Behavioral Core played a key role in the behavioral assessment of a new mouse model we developed to study a neurodegenerative disease caused by mutations in RNA polymerase III. Based on clinical features of the disease in patients, Dr. Gulinello, suggested an initial series of tests from a broad array of experiments provided by the core. Her expertise in the design and interpretation of these experiments and in the statistical analysis of the data allowed our study to proceed very efficiently. In addition, with data-driven input and advice along the way, we were able to modify our plans, adding and dropping some experiments, to further explore specific behavioral deficits that were revealed in the mice. We also took advantage of the training provided by Dr. Gulinello to use the core’s facilities without direct supervision in order to get the most information out of our research investment. The core is an extremely valuable resource for studies on animal behavior that has helped to get our work funded and to elevate the quality and depth of our research.”
Ian Willis, Ph.D.
Professor, Biochemistry; Systems and Computational Biology
“In early 2013, we believed we had a mouse model of an adult-onset dementia caused by dominant, inactivating mutations in the CSF1R. To establish this model, we needed to compare affected and control mice histologically, by MRI and by measuring cognitive, sensimotor, and affect/emotion/autonomic and other behaviors. However, our laboratory had absolutely no experience in studying animal behavior. That May, following a phone conversation about the dementia with Dr. Maria Gulinello, I immediately received an email from her suggesting that we do a test battery, including some rapid tests that cover the most critical behavioral domains. Maria suggested this would serve four functions: collecting pilot data for our grant; offering training for our postdoc and other staff; providing a pilot so that I could refine the parameters of each assay toward achieving a very robust and reliable assay (or set of assays); and identifying the behavioral domains (and thus underlying neurocircuits) most affected. Indeed, it did serve all four functions and, in collaboration with Maria, we submitted a manuscript and the grant. The manuscript was accepted and the grant--which included funding for Maria as a co-investigator as well as equipment for the core--was funded. Maria is a phenomenal core director, maintaining the highest possible standards in both her experimentation and her teaching. Over time, our laboratory personnel received outstanding training and have become more independent. However, we have continued to collaborate with Maria, who continues to expand the repertoire of behavioral tests that the behavioral core offers.”
E. Richard Stanley, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Developmental & Molecular Biology
Interim Chair Developmental & Molecular Biology
Renée E. and Robert A. Belfer Chair in Developmental Biology
Posted on: Friday, January 22, 2021