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History

For more than 30 years, ETAP-Lab for “Ethologie Appliquée” (Applied Ethology in English) has established itself as a valuable partner in the performance of preclinical studies for pharmaceutical companies, biotech and agro-food industry.

First specialised in rodent behaviour assessment, its co-founders Michaël MESSAOUDI and Pierre BOURGOGNE started the activity of ETAP-Lab in 1991 proposing Psychopharmacology and Neuropharmacology models for pharmaceutical companies.

ETAP-Lab has always sought to be at the cutting edge of in vivo preclinical services. As a matter of fact, one decade before the first European rule about health and nutrition claims, ETAP-Lab expanded its activity to the budding market of nutraceutics, proposing to agro-food industry the entire exigency and the processes used for pharmacological drugs. The project scaled-up with the arrival of Dr Pascale ROZAN as Nutrition-Health Manager (2001).

After this turning point, ETAP-Lab focused its activity on the development of original models of human pathologies with high translational value, useful for both pharmacological compounds and agro-food industries products. ETAP-Lab also enriched its services by incorporating models from 3 new fields under the direction of Dr Jean-François BISSON (2003): Cancerology, Dermatology and regulatory Toxicology.

To complete its activities, ETAP-Lab next developed preclinical models in 2 other fields: Cerebrocardiovascular diseases with the recruitment of Dr Nicolas VIOLLE (2009) and Aging and Neurodegenerative diseases under the supervision of Dr Christophe MULLER (2010).

For the last year, ETAP-Lab formalized quality management policy. As a result, the Toxicology Department obtained the ISO 9001:v2008 certification in December 2012 by the OFC for “Consulting, advising and expertise in toxicology, studies in toxicology performed or conducted by the toxicology Department”.

With two decades of experience in preclinical in vivo testing and rodent behavioural analysis, the ETAP-Lab team is able to develop and customize relevant animal models with high translational value that fit to your specific goals, from the proof-of-concept to the early development. ETAP-Lab’s team is listening to your needs to find the best solution for evaluating the potential effects of your products, just contact us !

Ethics

Full compliance with European guidelines for animal testing.

Active member of the local ethical committee (CELMEA).

Permanent improvement of our procedures and staff training.

French Government Authorization for all researchers and facilities.

Quality

Compliance with ISO 9001 standards and 21 CFR 58 GLP Regulations on data management and traceability.

Video recording and archiving of experiments.

Validation of our animal models with reference drugs.

Respect

Respect of animals physiological & biological rhythms: inverted light/dark cycle and testing during the first 4 hours of the period of activity under red light.

Respect of rodent’s natural behaviours (ethological models): a better relevance of the results.

Facilities

Our Research Center is fully designed and equipped to ensure cutting-edge quality for preclinical studies.

Our facilities include :

  • 350 m² experimental facilities dedicated to preclinical studies
  • 4 housing rooms for a total capacity of 400 rats and 400 mice
  • Up-to-date equipments including a surgical workstation for rodents and an access to a rodent PET-scan