The Jackson Laboratory (TJL) has recently launched a program to systematically collect a large number of transgenic mutants to provide new models relevant to the study of human neurological diseases. TJL's Neuroscience Mutagenesis Facility will generate, identify, and characterize new mutants in a broad range, areas including motor function, epilepsy, neural-based obesity, hearing, vision, learning, ingestive behaviors, affective disorders, sensorimotor gating, substance abuse, and anxiety.

As a part of this program, supervisor Dr. Kevin Seburn approached Columbus Instruments in February, 1999 to develop an automated monitoring system for use in the initial detection of deviant subjects. The result of this collaboration was a state-of-the-art live-in cage (dubbed "CLAMS" Comprehensive Monitoring System) that allows 24-hour, automated, non-invasive collection of several physiological and behavioral parameters simultaneously (activity, food and water consumption, metabolic performance). The proposal for the development of these cages as an automated screening tool was based on the simple premise that the detection of aberrations in any complex system is best achieved by simultaneously examining several parameters.

The Jackson Laboratory, founded in 1929, is a world leader in mammalian genetics research. With approximately 1,000 employees, the nonprofit, independent facility has a mission to improve the quality of human life through discoveries arising from its own genetic research and by enabling the research and education of others. Further information on The Jackson Laboratory can be obtained at http://www.jax.org/.

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