Research projects

Noldus plays an active role in several leading research projects around the world. Our preferred role is that of a technology partner: we develop tools and methods, and the researchers use and validate them. This way we contribute to scientific progress. At the same time the projects give us an opportunity to develop relevant new technologies - not only for today's mainstream use, but also for tomorrow's needs. If you are setting up a research project and think that Noldus could be a partner in the consortium, please contact us.


EthoGenomics

The EthoGenomics project aims to develop a high-throughput method for the screening of crop lines for host plant resistance against aphids and thrips. This includes the determination and quantification of behaviors that are an indication of host plant resistence, and the subsequent development of hardware to automatically screen for these behaviors on a large number of crop lines.

Neuro-Bsik Mouse Phenomics

Website: http://www.neurobsik.nl/

Neuro-Bsik is a consortium of several Dutch universities and two companies which has the goal to improve the management and treatment of brain disorders by identifying and phenotyping mouse models that can be used to develop therapies for such diseases.
Noldus plays a key-role in the development and implementation of a novel, automated yet intelligent High Throughput Phenotyping screening technology that makes it possible to select a single relevant mutant from a collection of thousands. Noldus designed for this reason the PhenoTyper®; a complete video-based observation system with integrated visual, acoustic and rewarding stimuli, suitable for automated analysis of several test paradigms.

NeuroBasic PharmaPhenomics

NeuroBasic PharmaPhenomics is a research consortium with several academic and commercial partners that builds on the successes of Neuro-Bsik. It aims to develop new drug discovery strategies in both neurology and psychiatry. They use a novel approach; improving early stage drug development with so called pharma-phenomics, well-characterized genetic animal models and response classification systems. In this consortium new products will be developed and commercialized, such as new releases of CatWalk XT and EthoVision XT.

Read more about this project in this news item.

SenseWell

SenseWell is a research consortium that proposes the developement of a system that automatically assesses health and wellbeing in husbandry systems. This system is based on recent advances in sensor technology, image processing, data fusion, pattern recognition, and software architecture design. It is unique in that it will be able to monitor behavior,physiology, and acoustics and combine these measurements for A) optimal assessment of health and wellbeing, and B) the ability to respond accordingly. Starting out with a rat model, eventually this system can be applied to larger scales such as large laboratory facilities and farm animal husbandry systems.

The consortium is a unique public-private partnership, with members from a broad range of complementary disciplines: animal behavior, brain and cognition, veterinary science, micro electronics, computer science, and statistics.

TREND (Trauma Related Neuronal Dysfunction)

TREND is a consortium of Dutch medical and technical universities, and industrial companies, in which research on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome type 1 (CRPS-1) is integrated.

Noldus Information Technology, as a provider of professional software and instrumentation for the study of behavior, contributes to the research program Assessment Technology. This program is aimed at developing assessment instruments for measuring specific aspects of CRPS in animal models. Within the research program Assessment technology, Noldus Information Technology provides software and instrumentation to the project team CatWalk. Within the TREND project, recent CatWalk XT features, such as the illuminated ceiling and Automatic Footprint Classification, were developed.

 

Partners