Anesthesia and Analgesia in Laboratory Animals

Melissa Dyson, DVM, MS, DACLAM is the University of Michigan's Senior Associate Attending Veterinarian, the Deputy Director of the Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine (ULAM), and the Director of the ULAM Training Core. In her role as Senior Associate Attending Veterinarian, Dr. Dyson assists with the guidance and oversight of the Animal Care & Use Program, including the exploration of new data-gathering and assessment strategies that support a culture of responsible research conduct. As the Deputy Director of ULAM, she assists in the overall management of the Unit, including animal husbandry, housing, veterinary care, and specialized research support services. Dr. Dyson also serves as the Director of the ULAM Training Core, where she is responsible for managing all animal care and use training and education programs at the University. Dr. Dyson's clinical and research interests include laboratory animal medicine management and infectious disease. She is also interested in training research personnel in the humane use and handling of animals used for research, as well as the training of future laboratory animal scientists and clinicians. Studied biology with a focus on zoology. She obtained her PhD in Neuroscience at the Institute for Laboratory Animal Science, University of Zurich, Switzerland. She has been certified as an expert for laboratory animal science by the German Association for Laboratory Animal Science (GV SOLAS). Currently, she holds a position as 3R coordinator at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. She is chair of the Executive Board of The Swiss 3R Competence Center (3RCC), board member of the Swiss Association of Laboratory Animal Science (SGV), member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Charite 3R, Berlin, Germany as well as Deputy Editor of the journal Laboratory Animals.
Her scientific field of interest is the evaluation of severity assessment tools and the reliable assessment of pain in laboratory rodents. She has authored many publications (original articles, reviews, recommendations and book chapters) on the refinement of anesthesia and analgesia protocols to ensure scientific quality and animal welfare in animal-based research. Furthermore, her interests lie also in the non-pharmacological improvement of animal well-being involving refined post-surgical protocols and experimental housing conditions. Jennifer Lofgren: is the Global Head of Animal Welfare and Compliance at Novartis as well as an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of Michigan Medical School where she co-founded the Refinement and Enrichment Advancements Laboratory (REAL). She has a DVM and MS from Tufts University and a BA from Wellesley College. She completed a post-doctoral training program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a visiting research fellowship with the Pain and Animal Welfare Science group at Newcastle University in the UK. She is a diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM). She is the chair of the Non-Human Pain Special Interest Group within the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP).
She has received several grants through Grants for Laboratory Animal Science (GLAS) and ACLAM Foundation and published a variety of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in the 3Rs (Reduce, Refine, Replace) areas with particular focus on the effective recognition and alleviation of pain in rodents, the comparative impact of unalleviated pain and analgesia on research outcomes, social housing of rabbits, the value of nesting for mouse health assessments, and refinements to reduce animal numbers. Dr. Elizabeth Nunamaker received the PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2006 from University of Michigan, and the DVM degree from Purdue University in 2010. She is also double boarded by the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine and the American College of Animal Welfare. She has spent the past 10+ years of her career focused on the welfare of laboratory animal species and has numerous publications pertaining to anesthesia and analgesia. Dr. Nunamaker is a member of the Global Animal Welfare and Training team at Charles River Laboratories, serving as the Director of Animal Welfare. She is also currently the President of the North American 3Rs Collaborative where she is focused on spreading rodent refined handling practices and developing a 3Rs certification program for those working in animal research. Daniel Pang: is an Associate Professor of veterinary anaesthesiology at the University of Calgary. He received his veterinary degree from the University of Bristol (2000) and went on to complete a residency and MSc in veterinary anaesthesia at the Universite de Montreal. He received his doctorate in neuroscience (molecular mechanisms of volatile anaesthetics) from Imperial College, London (2011) and is a Diplomate of the European and American Colleges of Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia.
His research interests are in pain assessment and welfare, particularly the applications of pain assessment scales, patient safety and and the concept of enhanced recovery protocols for optimising perioperative care. His research is supported through federal (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) and private foundation (Fondation J.-Louis Levesque) funding. He is an editorial board member of Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Small Animal Practice and BMJ Veterinary Record Case Reports.