Animal facility - Breeding & experimental units

The NKI aims to make a significant contribution to curing cancer by conducting excellent research of which an essential part involves preclinical in-vivo experiments. The Laboratory Animal Center (LAC) of the NKI is a state-of-the-art animal facility housed in a 8,000 m2 building established in 2013 and fully operational since 2016. The LAC has a maximum capacity of 21,000 individually ventilated cages (IVCs) for housing wild-type and genetically engineered mice and rats.

All animals are housed in disposable IVCs, minimizing the risk of cross-infection, improving ergonomics and obviating the need for a robotics infrastructure for cage-washing. Ultimately, the LAC offers in-vivo services to 200 NKI researchers as well as a growing number of academic and industrial parties in the Netherlands and abroad.