Chronicle

The National Laboratory Animal Center (NLAC) is a non profit organization which was approved by the Executive Yuan on December 5th 1988 and was established in 1994. Originally NLAC served as the first large-scale supplier of specific pathogen free (SPF) laboratory rodents in Taiwan. Subsequently in response to international and domestic trends and demands, NLAC went under a transition phase, in which NLAC successfully shifted from a laboratory animal supplier to a multi-functional national laboratory animal resource center under the jurisdiction of the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) in June 2003.

Initially NLAC’s main role was to provide high-quality animals with well-defined genetic traits. Such role was later modified and NLAC transformed into a multi-functional institution. NLAC does not only supply a variety of laboratory animal strains for the domestic research community and biotechnology sector, but also assures the quality and sales volume of the laboratory animals. In addition, to meet the ever increasing demand of the domestic biotechnology industry and the scientific research academia, NLAC has numerous functions such as cryopreservation, diagnosis and technical services, professional education and training etc.

The future of animal work at NLAC is an exciting prospect for us. For future development NLAC has set up a 2-stage plan. Phase 1, NLAC plans to modernize their animal facility by having complete infrastructure in both hardware-and-software facilities in Taipei and Tainan. Phase 1 development also includes recruiting professionals, coordinating global biotechnological, biomedical research and in the development prospects. Moreover set-up core institutional operations. NLAC continues to learn and grow therefore phase 2 of development is learning and adopting the functions of the Jackson laboratory. Through functions such as research and development, education and training and technical services NLAC aims to stand out as the laboratory animal resource in support of the sustaining development for national biomedical research and biotechnological industry, as well as an international laboratory animal science resource communication platform.

Together with the establishment of our Tainan facility in 2008 and the on going training opportunities provided for our staff NLAC is in a position to offer more services to researchers and are able to offer better assistance to ensure good quality experiments and consistent results. NLAC intends to continue setting a high standard for animal experimentation, which others will aspire to and of which we can contribute to the domestic biotechnology industry.