College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Laboratory Animal Resources Unit

The Laboratory Animal Resource Unit (LARU) is a 13,263-square-foot core animal facility on the first floor of B.C. Webb Hall.

This facility provides critical support to teaching and preparing students − especially underrepresented minorities − for opportunities to pursue careers in the biomedical sciences, laboratory animal science and professional veterinary medicine. In addition, the LARU supports on-going faculty and student research in biology, allergy and immunology, cardiovascular disease, virology, biomedical animal models and diseases, food animal infectious diseases, respiratory diseases, nanotechnology, genetics, nutrition, bioengineering, bacteriology, oncology and biotechnology.

As a teaching and research-support entity for N.C. A&T, the LARU provides the management and resources to maintain full Public Health Service Policy Assurance on the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals used in teaching and biomedical research. Efforts by the Laboratory Animal Facility are 100 percent service-based to university animal-based research and teaching programs.

The facility manager and support staff are certified by the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science and provide a wide range of teaching and research technical services to meet the university’s needs. Support functions include daily animal husbandry requirements, animal quarantine and conditioning programs, animal surgical and anesthetic support, laboratory animal veterinary medical care programs, and regulatory support through regulatory agencies, including the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Office of Lab Animal Welfare and the United States Department of Agriculture.