The vascular function core is equipped with two 4-channel DMT wire myograph systems and 3 Living Systems pressure myograph system for the assessment of arterial function. Additionally, the clinical vascular function laboratory is equipped with a Moor Instruments Laser Doppler Flowmetry system with intradermal microdialysis for the assessment of human skin blood flow, an index of microvascular function and a Sphygmocor System for the assessment of vascular stiffness via pulse wave velocity and pulse wave analysis.

The facility is comprised of four separate rooms. The first and largest room is equipped with four independent and fully functional murine ‘operating stations’, each with a surgical stereomicroscope, tabletop gas anesthesia machine for rodent inhalation anesthesia, fiber optic lighting, temperature regulation with feedback control via rectal temperature monitoring, microsurgical instruments, heat pad and heat lamp, glass bead sterilizers, surgical supplies, shaver and weighing scales. In addition, there is a rodent respirator for use in open chest procedures and a Millar pressure volume hemodynamics area associated with one of these workstations. One of these four stations is primarily dedicated to closed chest survival electrophysiology studies.

The second room functions as the telemetry room. This temperature and humidity-controlled site includes the DSI equipment necessary to perform continuous ambulatory telemetric EKG and hemodynamic monitoring along with constant measurement of animal temperature and activity. The current room capacity allows for simultaneous measurement of two groups of eight mice.

A third room houses two Kent Coda mouse tail cuff blood pressure analysis systems with laptop computers and capabilities of noninvasively measuring 12 mice simultaneously.

The fourth room houses a VisualSonics ultrasound machine with an associated tabletop gas anesthesia machine, a heated platform with EKG and a micromanipulator for injections. This area contains two separate anesthesia platforms to enable echocardiography on either mice or rats. The room also houses a Dexa imager capable of measuring bone density and body composition of mice.

The facility also has access to a mouse exercise treadmill capable of exercising six mice simultaneously.

The Interventional Research Core Laboratory has a fully equipped and accredited animal hybrid interventional-operating fluoroscopy suite capable of routine and fluoroscopic imaging for large animal work. Housing is located on an adjacent floor. The facility has all of the equipment necessary for multivessel physiology and invasive hemodynamic studies and studies involving mechanical circulatory support.  It is led by an Interventional Cardiologist and staffed by a pre-clinical surgeon, a DVM research associate and two experienced large animal technologists. The team works closely with the Director of the Tufts Comparative Medicine Services (Tufts CMS), a veterinarian with more than 30 years of small and large animal research experience. Animals are examined at least daily by the veterinarian staff and research personnel according to the AAALAC and NIH guidelines. In addition, Tufts CMS animal histopathology laboratory has dedicated pathology staff to support studies in the Core.