Dr. Lise Phaneuf wins top national award for animal care

As an accomplished veterinarian, she has consistently ensured that the welfare of research mice meets the highest standards.

Recently, Dr. Phaneuf’s dedication was recognized with the inaugural Gilles Demers Award for Excellence in Animal Care, presented by the Canadian Council on Animal Care—the national regulatory body for animal ethics and standards of care.

Serving as the Senior Director of Animal Resources and Compliance at The Centre for Phenogenomics (TCP), Dr. Phaneuf has prioritized animal welfare while ensuring compliance with national policies and guidelines and provincial legislation. TCP, a national facility managed jointly by Mount Sinai Hospital and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), supports discovery research in human disease using mice as models.

“Ensuring that the mice are well cared for is paramount not only because it is an ethically right thing to do, but also because good science depends on it. If an animal is experiencing stress or pain, it could affect the results of the research,” she said.

Animal research plays a crucial role in understanding diseases and developing treatments. In Canada, stringent regulations require demonstrating safety and efficacy in animal studies before proceeding to human trials. Researchers mainly use mice due to their biological similarities to humans and the ability to model similar diseases, from cancer to diabetes to Alzheimer’s disease.

Since opening in 2007, TCP has provided services to more than two thousand researchers from more than 56 countries.

“On behalf of all researchers at Sinai Health, we extend our deepest gratitude and congratulations to Dr. Phaneuf for her invaluable support and commitment to advancing our understanding of human disease through ethically conducted research,” said Dr. Anne-Claude Gingras, Director of the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and Vice President of Research for Sinai Health.

Advancing research through animal care

Dr. Phaneuf was TCP’s first employee and built the animal care and use program from the ground up. She was recruited after becoming the first person to earn a doctorate in Laboratory Animal Science from the country’s top veterinary school, the University of Guelph, where she had also earned her veterinary degree. Her initial plan was to study medicine, but she pivoted to veterinary medicine after enjoying her part-time work at an animal shelter.

At TCP, Dr. Phaneuf chairs the monthly bioethics review by the Animal Care Committee. Committee members include vets, scientists and two members of the public who volunteer their time to scrutinize the proposals and ensure that animal use is justified and humane. Dr. Phaneuf’s expertise often guides researchers to refine their approaches to reduce stress on the animals and use the least invasive methods.

Her team of 40 animal care professionals maintain the highest standards of cleanliness and care for the mice, seven days a week.

Dr. Phaneuf says, “I’m fortunate to have such a strong, dedicated and compassionate team of individuals around me. To have people I have worked with for a long time and that I can rely on, it just makes it nice to come to work.”

Dr. Phaneuf’s team not only educates researchers on best practices in animal welfare throughout the experimental processes, but also conducts their own studies to find out what works best for the animals. For example, a recent study they undertook evaluated three different types of nesting material, a vital part of enrichment, to determine which type the mice preferred. They found a preference for a product in which the nesting material is supplied in a pouch that mice must chew through to pull it out. Although more expensive at purchase, this product produced less waste than other products and was easiest to deliver throughout the facility, saving valuable staffing time and, therefore, was overall more cost-efficient.

In addition to her primary role, Dr. Phaneuf lends her expertise to regulatory agencies in Canada and internationally, helping develop guidelines and frameworks for animal care that incorporate the latest scientific evidence.