Behaviour Facility
The Florey’s Behaviour Facility offers state-of-the-art in vivo phenotyping for researchers and academics from within The Florey, neighbouring research institutes, universities and external laboratories.
Located within our Parkville Campus, the facility is unique within Australia with a wide range of behavioural tests available to examine a variety of disease models providing a comprehensive assessment of neurological function. These include:
- motor coordination/agility
- strength
- exploratory activity
- metabolic activity
- affective responses – anxiety, depression, startle sensitivity
- sensori-motor gating – pre-pulse inhibition
- cognitive functions – attention, working memory, recognition memory, spatial learning and memory, procedural learning and memory, extinction learning, reversal learning, contextual fear memory.
Services
Investigators interested in using a comprehensive end-to-end service should contact the facility for an initial consultation. The initial consultation will discuss your area of study, disease model and specific testing requirements so that we can develop an experimental plan to characterise and phenoptype your model.
Ethics and care
Animal ethics
All procedures are performed according to the Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986 guidelines. The Animal Ethics Committee (AEC) operates using the Terms of Reference and Procedural Guidelines.
For any questions or queries about animal ethics please contact the Animal Ethics Committee.
Email: [email protected]
Veterinary care
The Florey and the Bioresources Facility have a vet care program in place to ensure animal welfare. This program is constantly reviewed to be in line with best practice in coordination with animal ethics.
