BASiBroadcast
Science in Uncertain Times: Tools to Maximize Impact
Posted on 7/1/2025 by Nicole Navratil
Science in Uncertain Times: Tools to Maximize Impact
Before every medical breakthrough ever reaches a patient, it relies on the hidden support that no one sees. Beginning with early mornings, late nights, and missed moments at home as you care for the most vulnerable participants in science, your animals. Your devotion rarely makes it into the headlines, but without it, no meaningful data could ever exist.
But you may feel like you're walking on a tightrope. You’ve been stretching your facilities and administrative budgets and are still being asked to do even more with even less. Every data point, every animal, and every grant dollar must count.
Please let us help. In response to the uncertainty right now, we are making it easier than ever for you to access to our most useful and popular research tools:
- Culex Automated Blood Sampling System
- Raturn Movement Response Caging System
- Empis Automated Dosing System
Flexible funding options, discounted pricing, trade-in credits to update outdated equipment, and free demos are available throughout the summer to help make it easier to use these tools. Contact our team at invivo@basinc.com to discuss the options available.
Now is the Time for Automated Sampling and Dosing
The Culex Automated Blood Sampling System and Empis Automated Dosing System were specifically designed to maximize laboratory resources, animal welfare, and data collection.
This can help when resources are uncertain, by allowing you to increase the number of studies you can perform and the amount of data you can obtain with lean staffing and reduced budgets.
Automated Systems Enable Stress-Free Hormone Sampling in Mice
Researchers at the University of Michigan demonstrated how the Culex Automated Blood Sampling System combined with the Raturn Movement Responsive Caging, and Empis Automated Infusion System can support complex AAV-based studies by enabling precise, stress-free hormone sampling in mice.
In this study, adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors were used to deliver Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs) to targeted neuronal populations. These genetically introduced receptors were then activated using timed intravenous delivery of clozapine-N-oxide (CNO) via the Empis system, while the Culex system simultaneously performed serial blood sampling.
The protocol enabled detection of pulsatile luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion without restraint, mouse training, nor technician presence, thus overcoming the typical stress-related disruptions that confound endocrine measurements. This study highlights how automated infusion and sampling platforms can enhance AAV-enabled research by providing reproducible, high-resolution data under normal physiological conditions.
Learn more about the Metabolic, Physiological and Behavioral Phenotyping Core, and the Michigan Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center (MMPC-Live).
The Automation Advantage: Learn More About These Tools
- Collect samples from awake, free moving, low-stress animals.
- Dose and sample anytime of the day or night without humans present.
- Capture multiple streams of data from a single animal, reducing animal numbers while improving the ability to make educated decisions.
The Culex Automated Blood Sampling System is available in many configurations to meet your specific needs:
- Culex NxT with Swivel for easy integration with your preferred rodent caging for easy blood collection.
- Culex NxT with Raturn is available in a benchtop or rolling cart set-up for a single rodent.
- CulexNxT with Raturn - Multi-Animal is available to accommodate up to 4 rodent stations on a single cart.
- Culex L is available for sampling from dogs, pigs, NHPs and other large animals.
Automated Dosing for Lean Teams: The Empis Automated Dosing System
Long-term drug infusion is critical for studies involving gene therapies, CNS pharmacology, biologics, and sustained PK/PD modeling, but maintaining consistent, uninterrupted dosing can be labor-intensive and error-prone.
The Empis® Automated Drug Infusion System solves this with programmable, hands-free delivery and automatic syringe refilling, enabling continuous infusion protocols lasting 24 hours or more without technician intervention.
If your data relies on precision, timing, and reproducibility, Empis gives you total control, especially when combined with the Culex Nxt for small animals, or the Culex L for large animals.
- Evaluate stress-sensitive parameters without introducing any human interaction.
- Schedule repeatable delivery of timed bolus injections.
- Administer sustained delivery over time like with AAV gene therapy or drugs with slow toxicity onset.
- Deliver two drugs through a single catheter, each independently programmed, and ideal for drug-drug interaction (DDI) studies.
- Maintain local organ perfusion in vivo.
- Support synchronized bile salt replacement within bile duct cannulation (BDC) studies.
Empis is now available for short-term and long-term rentals.
Contact our team at invivo@basinc.com to learn more.
Turn Away From Traditional Tethering: Raturn Movement Responsive Caging
The Raturn is a movement responsive rodent caging system that is designed as an alternative to a liquid swivel or commutator to increase animal welfare and avoid jams, leaks, torque, and resistance.
The Raturn interactively responds to animal movement to keep wires, tubing, fluid lines and cables from twisting; and to allow the animal to move freely without restraint. It is most commonly used with the Culex Nxt, but can be combined with other sampling protocols as well.
- Eliminate tether related movement restrictions and stress responses.
- Eliminate swivels and commutators and the associated issues
- Combine multiple fluid AND electrical lines together in a single animal.
- Incorporate a metabolic cage to easily separate urine and feces.
- Integrate seamlessly with Culex Nxt, Open Flow Microperfusion, Microdialysis, The Empis® Automated Drug Infusion System, other standard infusion or perfusion systems, EEG/EMG, optogenetics, biosensors, electrodes, and more.
Please reach out to our team of experts at invivo@basinc.com.
We are ready to discuss how these tools can help you continue you mission, even during these uncertain times; and to learn how we can make it easier to get these tools integrated into your laboratory.
Share this post!
