WHO’s Darwin?

Darwin may have had a theory of human evolution but the QUAD had the facts on,

"Environmental Evolution: R U Keeping Up?"

The Program Committee did a great job again of getting a wide variety of speakers. Dr. Dysko from AALAS spoke on encouraging technicians to publish and also on water quality at his facility. Both were highly informative and useful. Having support and mentoring from your superiors is invaluable to technicians wanting to contribute to the research being done at the facility. Thank you Dr. Dysko for being a great role model.

We had two informative lectures on the Zebrafish facility at the University of Pittsburgh. Other topics included Genetically Modified Colony Management, the Role of Nutrition in Post Operative Recovery of Rodents, Animal Welfare, Whole Rack Euthanasia and Rodent Circadian Disruption. A wide variety of topics give us a little something for everyone.

The QUAD Tech Challenge returned again this year under the direction of Dr. Bob Quinn. Dr. Bob did a great job of coming up with new questions and prizes, the wireless buzzer system was a vast improvement and Dr. Dysko was a fair and impartial judge. It’s not too early to start thinking about your team for next year. Or just plan on watching your colleagues try to remember back to their college days to find the correct answer in the form of a question.  It’s entertaining for everyone. 

The 4^th season of the tech challenge featured  5 teams, with a good mix of veterans and rookies.  Congratulations to the Team who took home the trophy.

Once again, a special thank you to all exhibitors and sponsors for their support.  There are some big changes coming for the 2010 QUAD. Keep an eye out for any hot news coming your way.

Congratulations to our Quad winners:

Poster Competition

Every year the QUAD committee requests a survey on the events. Here is a glimpse of what we look for in hopes of always improving the QUAD experience.

2009 Quad Survey Results

Submitted by Warren Ball with special thanks to Becky Benz and the Core!

Deadlines

March 1:    Exhibitor/Vendor registration

April 1:      Abstract submission and Poster session

April 2:      Early registration

April 30:    Essay submission

April 19:    Hotel booking

May 1:       Team submission for Tech Challenge

May 3:       Meeting registration

Events

Tuesday

May 11th, 2010

9 - 9:45am           

F. Claire Hankenson – University of Pennsylvania “Genotyping by Gorillas:  Current guidance for tissue sampling of mice”

10:30 - 11am

Diann Funk – University of Pittsburgh “The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall:  Handling Large Swine in Surgical Protocols”

11:00 – 11:30 am   

Jennifer Camacho – Massachusetts General Hospital “Response Plan for Primate Behavior”

1:15 –   2:00 pm  

James Macy – Yale University  “Factors Affecting Mouse Parvovirus Spread in Colonies”

2:00 –   2:30 pm

Julieanne Brandolini – Partners Healthcare System “Standardizing the Definition of a Dirty Rodent Cage”

2:30 –   3:00 pm

Julie Watson – Johns Hopkins School of Medicine