The University of Cambridge has 5 dedicated Aquatics facilities across Cambridge, with the capability to hold multiple species of fish and aquatic frogs, within state-of-the-art systems.
These facilities include:
- The UK’s only containment level 2 aquatics facility providing support for infectious disease research
- A dedicated quarantine room with an optimized screening program allowing for the import of multiple species whilst ensuring high standards of biosecurity
- Dedicated adult rooms consisting of large recirculating systems with advanced central life support systems
- Nursery rooms for close observation of young species, ensuring optimal welfare and development from fry to adult stages
- Procedure rooms offering equipment such as microscopes, injectors and incubators to support researchers.
- Dedicated xenopus facilities with large recirculating systems as well as standalone systems to meet multiple research demands
With a combined experience of over 50 years, the aquatics team is able to provide multiple services to support research, including husbandry, import and export of lines, in-house breeding of zebrafish, medaka and xenopus laevis, procedures such as genotyping and cryopreservation as well as providing training to researchers and technicians within and outside of the University.
The aquatics team strive for optimal welfare and work with facilities around the world to create standardisation for aquatic care. This includes the sharing of techniques and processes through onsite training and standard operating procedures (SOP’s), as well as publications and presentations.