Biology Organism Rooms and Care - Northern Magazine

A Department of Biology worth its salt wants students to work with live organisms, and we are no exception. Whether that is for research projects, labs in courses, or even the general environment of the department, life is what we do and so having live organisms around is key to our success. But, it’s not simple to have and maintain organisms. Here at NMU, we operate an Animal Room Facility which currently houses mice and zebrafish. We expect to see birds there soon as well. We also have a squirrel colony for hibernation research and maintain an Aquatics Laboratory where we house aquatic organisms ranging from snails to guppies to frogs. We operate our greenhouse, as well, with both research and teaching collections, as well as smaller growing areas such as our hydroponics setups.

There are complexities to keeping live organisms that involve safe and ethical treatment of the organisms along with safety of the humans that use them. Probably the two most important issues are 1) making sure that we can adequately care for our organisms and 2) making sure that we have permission to keep the specific species involved.

Adequate care is all about the people who feed, water and care for our organisms. For each of our facilities, there is a faculty member who serves as the director and then they work with a group of students, mostly paid undergraduates, who provide daily care. For the plants, this means watering, fertilizing, repotting and keeping the plants pest free. For the animals, it is daily feeding, cleaning, and sanitation. It can also include propagation or breeding of organisms to maintain a colony. And all of these activities have to occur whether school is in session or not. Animals still need to be fed during the holiday breaks and plants need to be watered all summer. Even in a snow storm, someone is usually in the building taking care of the business of caring for organisms.

Beyond care, permitting is often an important part of having organisms. At NMU, vertebrate animals (including fish) are overseen by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Additionally, there may be permits that are needed to house native or invasive species, or protected species; these permits may come from the State of Michigan and/or the Federal Government. We can also extend this idea of permitting to our microbial organisms as well since we have to maintain appropriate biosafety for these organisms.

Oh, and these are just the organisms that are in the department buildings! Don’t forget all that field work that happens both in classes and for research. Whether it is watching migratory birds, catching aquatic insects, monitoring salamanders, or camera- trapping mammals, living organisms are the most fundamental part of biology.

The faculty and students in the Biology Department recognize that it is a privilege to be able to work with living organisms and we take seriously our responsibility to care for them well, work with them in ethical and appropriate ways and ensure that their contribution to science is worth it. We are grateful to be able to work with live organisms on a daily basis and we share those opportunities with our students!