Doctor Veronika Borbélyová has received a grant from the Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV) to test social interactions in a home cage environment, an innovative ethological approach to measuring social behavior in laboratory rats, and the influence of sex steroid hormones (APVV-24-0274). Congratulations!
About the project in brief: In biomedical research, social behavior of rodents is often tested individually for short periods outside their home cages, which can induce stress and alter natural behavior, thereby reducing the translational value of the tests. Continuous monitoring of animals in cages where they feel at home (home cage) can solve these problems. Therefore, the novelty of this project lies in the comparison of sex-specific social behavior of adult Wistar rats using a home cage system (PhenoTypere) and standard social tests.
We present details about the project in the following video (supported by APVV-24-0274):