UID Mouse Matrix

Remote and Continuous Monitoring of Rodent Temperature and Activity

For a full understanding of mouse phenotypes, it is important to monitor animal behavior over long periods of time in the absence of external stimuli. In addition to tracking animal activity, body temperature is another physiological parameter that can be useful to evaluate. Behavioral phenotyping also requires continuous and undisturbed monitoring of the animals in their natural, home-cage environment. This is commonly achieved with video-based systems, which allow researchers to leave the room and observe the animals remotely. However, this practice can be very costly to implement, as well as time- and labor-intensive since it relies on the allocation of research staff fully dedicated to video interpretation. Furthermore, it is difficult to accurately monitor the animals in a group housed setting, or at night when they are most active.

The UID Mouse Matrix was developed to address the challenges researchers face when evaluating behavior in mice. The UID Mouse Matrix is an RFID-enabled system that allows real-time recording and monitoring of location, movement and temperature for one or multiple animals in their home-cage environment. The data generated by the system provides detailed insights into the health and behavior of each animal. Does the mouse huddles with the group? Does the animal spend more time under the feeder? Are some animals more active than others? Is the body temperature increasing or decreasing? These are some of the questions that can be easily answered with the UID Mouse Matrix. These evaluations are performed remotely in real-time, and even in the dark during the night, without disturbing the animals and without the presence of laboratory personnel.

Create Your Own Smart Cage for Undisturbed Monitoring of Home-cage Activity

Simply implant the UID Temperature or standard ID microchip in the animals, and place them back in their cage. Then place the UID Mouse Matrix reader plate under the cage for continuous (24/7) and undisturbed tracking of the animals’ location, movement and temperature. The UID Mouse Matrix reader plate can be adapted to work with any cage to create your own Smart Cage for continuous monitoring of animal activity. We are also currently working with several caging manufacturers for the development of Rodent Smart Cages fully integrated with RFID tracking technology from UID.

Features and Benefits

• Home-cage activity and temperature monitoring system for rodents
• Continuous, real-time recording of digital biomarkers
• Non-invasive and undisturbed monitoring of animal activity and temperature
• Individual monitoring of group housed animals in their social environment
• Objective monitoring of animal behavior at night when the lights are off and rodents are most active
• Email alerts for critical indicators of animal health
• Intuitive software for enhanced user experience and convenient data analysis

Research Applications