Charles River Mattawan, Michigan Laboratory Animal Medicine Experience

We are excited to share Ms. Joanna Copio’s domestic experience below, funded by Charlie’s Angels fund.

During my two weeks at Charles River, I partook in a variety of experiences, from general facility tours and networking experiences, to shadowing vets on clinical cases, to participating in training activities with mice and non-human primates, to behavior and welfare round and discussions. Here, I learned about the behind-the-scenes aspect of how drugs are developed in terms of the safety and efficacy of their usage. I also had first hand experiences of how drugs can make improvements in the injury or disease processes in sick animals, in which hat data translate to human clinical trials and eventually the pharmaceutical markets. I also was able to contrast the industry aspect of laboratory animal field with the academic aspect of the field. I found this environment to be more fast-paced, structured, pharmaceutical-specific, and departmental.