Category Archive

Good and reliable surgical instruments are important tools for optimal microsurgery. For over 45 years, the Fine Science Tools (FST) Group has been the leading distributor of precision surgical and microsurgical instruments and laboratory accessories in Europe. At FST, they precisely craft over 1,000 products and serve thousands of customers in universities, research facilities, biotech, and scientific institutions worldwide.  They team with over 70 business partners and are working with over 50 distributors, all well-known in the fields of laboratory sales and surgical equipment. All of their European manufacturers and suppliers are ISO 9001 certified. And all the employees at the three offices support the wide-ranging needs of the scientific and biomedical research communities around the globe.  RRSSC and FST share several core values. Their selection of instruments is based on careful study and knowledge of customers’ needs, as well as listening to their requests. They use this feedback to constantly adapt their products to the laboratories, research facilities, and learning institutions that rely on them.Almost every instrument they sell is manufactured by skilled European craftsmen and designed to exact specifications. Their instruments are forged from the strongest, lightest materials available, including the finest German stainless-steel alloys. On top of that, they can help you adapt an instrument to your specific needs or refurbish used instruments. Are you interested in the RRSSC-FST instrument selection for microsurgery? Have a look here

Online (micro)surgical training at RRSSC (download the PDF) At the René Remie Surgical Skills Centre (RRSSC) training facilities in Almere, The Netherlands, we have trained many surgeons, veterinarians, animal technicians, and scientists. We teach the general principle of surgery in rodents and provide training in a large number of specific (micro)surgical procedures such as catheterizations for chronic blood sampling, implantation of devices, and experimental techniques. The dedicated surgical workstations, personal attention, and relaxed atmosphere during our courses create the ideal circumstances for knowledge transfer. Our website testimonials speak for themselves  (https://www.rrssc.eu/testimonials-2/). Like many other businesses, we were affected by the travel restrictions of our clients due to the Corona pandemic and subsequently, the number of course participants being able to follow our training modules decreased. Although we believe that surgical training is best achieved with personal guidance in our dedicated training facilities, we have the set up for online surgical training for advanced surgeons and thus expand our training possibilities. With online surgical training, we continue to comply with our mission “To share our experience and enthusiasm for setting and achieving ambitious levels of surgical skills”. This means we have set the highest standard for performing this online surgical training. Both the microscope vision and overview of the surgical area are provided. Additionally, we offer the possibility to monitor you while performing surgery, using a portable digital microscope. This allows us to guide you through procedures and help you perform difficult steps in the operation. Online communication using Microsoft Teams enables us to invite other specialists in our network to assist. The training sessions are recorded for future reference. Like any surgery, online surgical training needs preparation. Our online training session, therefore, starts with an inventory of your surgical request.  As soon as a surgical protocol is agreed upon, we …

Transonic and the René Remie Surgical Skills Centre (RRSSC) join forces during this rodent microsurgery, blood pressure and flow workshop. This is an on-demand fully customizable workshop that will make you an expert in your rodent blood pressure and flow application of choice. Workshop Goal: The goal of this workshop is to teach registrants all ins and outs of solid-state pressure technology and ultrasound transit-time-based absolute volume blood flow measurements while optimizing their microsurgical skills. Since the number of applications in rodent studies is endless, there is no predefined program. Transonic’s perivascular flow probes have been around for 30 years. This means that there is no blood vessel that we have not worked with. Let us know what your goals are and we will create a program for you. Who Should Attend: This course is designed for scientists and technicians who are both new to rodent pressure and blood flow recording techniques as well as those who are experienced and wish to refine their techniques. While the course language will be English, the course instructors are also versed in Dutch, German, Spanish and basic French. Therefore, one-to-one instruction can take place in multiple languages. Read the brochure for full details and schedule. Course Directors: Astrid Haegens is a PhD with an all round biomedical laboratory background. Astrid’s expertise is in the field of rodent cardiovascular and pulmonary disease models. She has extensive microsurgery experience and has taught many in-person and videoconference-based microsurgical training sessions. She brings 10 years of academic laboratory experience to Transonic. For the past 9 years, she has been sharing her expertise with Transonic’s customers, to ensure they get the most out of their research. René Remie, PharmD, DLAS, PhD, author and editor of the Manual of Microsurgery on the Laboratory Rat, studied Pharmacy at the University …

Kent Scientific (KSC) and RRSSC have joined forces to organize a 2-day workshop on anaesthesiology. This training aims at participants who want to get more insight into administering injectable and inhalation anaesthetics whilst at the same time monitoring vital physiological parameters in rats and mice. Researchers still work with conventional evaporators designed for humans and large laboratory animals. KSC designed the SomnoFlo®, a low-flow electronic vaporizer with an automated delivery system. It uses either ambient air with an internal air pump or compressed gas. It delivers only the anaesthetic required by the animal according to its weight, with flows down to 0.05 LPM. Using less anaesthetic not only benefits the animal during procedures but significantly reduces the risk of exposure to lab personnel from waste anaesthetic gas. Monitoring vital signs during research protocols is critical to achieving successful outcomes, acquiring reliable research data and publishing reproducible findings. The KSC physiological monitors for pulse oximetry, heart rate, end-tidal CO2, and temperature provide state-of-the-art performance while ensuring animal well-being. To that end, Kent Scientific, in collaboration with the RRSSC, proposes a training workshop at the RRSSC in Almere, The Netherlands. The training lasts 2 days (16 hours). This is the program of the 2-day KSC/RRSSC workshop. Course dates for 2023 will be March 21 – 22, 2023. Kent Scientific provides one scholarship for this training. Please apply here.

This training is aimed at participants who want to develop surgical skills in implanting telemetric transmitters. It requires a degree as a lab technician, veterinarian, biologist, pharmacologist or any other medical science.We recognize that a critical component to the success of collecting accurate physiological measurements via telemetry is surgical proficiency. Quality surgical training dramatically shortens the learning curve for device implantation and provides earlier success in collecting accurate data. To that end, Data Sciences International (DSI) in collaboration with the René Remie Surgical Skills Centre (RRSSC) proposes a surgical training workshop at the RRSSC. The workshop has a maximum of 8 participants. The training lasts 2 days (14 hours). Click here for additional information and registration

DSI and RRSSC offer 3-days training in the implantation of iPRECIO refillable and programmable infusion pumps on April 6-8, 2022 iPRECIO pumps can be completely implanted in small laboratory animals subcutaneously. Thus, the animal moves freely without any restraint (i.e. tethering) during drug infusion. Additionally, infection risk is reduced, and the animal is likely to be significantly less stressed than in a tethered infusion model. You can replenish any medical fluid in the pump via percutaneous access to the pump refill septum and reservoir after implantation of the pump. Therefore, long-term drug infusion can continue until the installed battery life has run out. The reservoir is elastic and configured in such a geometry as to allow gentle palpation to confirm an approximate level of fluid in the reservoir. Wireless programming allows all pumps to be conveniently detected, assigned, programmed and monitored via our IMS-310R iPRECIO Management system. Once completely programmed wirelessly, the iPRECIO SMP-310R Pumps will independently infuse as programmed until completed or aborted without further communications with the IMS-310R. The programmable feature will make iPRECIO® pumps indispensable for applications where accurate flow infusion, recovery/washout periods, constant/variable dose or complex circadian infusion studies are necessary. SMP-310R Pump’s Structure for mice For rats, The SMP-200 pump is available with the following specifications: The battery life is up to 6 months at a flow rate of 1.0μL/hr continuously.You can confirm the estimated battery life on the PC screen when you set the infusion protocol with the iPRECIO Management Software. Flow Rate Infusion Time Total Volume Time (h) days (approx) 30.0μL/hr 196 hr 1 week 5.8 ml 19.0μL/hr 307 hr 1.8 weeks 5.8 ml 8.5μL/hr 669 hr 1 Month 5.6 ml 1.0μL/hr 4,328 hr 6 Months 4.3 ml Do you want to see more? Have a look here. Interested in the training? Please fill …

Since WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic, RRSSC has observed the resulting drastic changes to research and how now, more than ever, it has become increasingly important to be able to plan, scale and create animal models that efficiently deliver meaningful findings. To reach our goal of making in-lab and virtual training programs accessible to more researchers, we are gratified to announce our agreement with InsideScientific, an online environment of resources for life-science researchers. We will be collaborating on new virtual and in-lab training programs. For example, RRSSC recently provided important scientific content for a live online demo session on inhalation anaesthesia for one of Kent’s major European customers. We both look forward to continuing cultivating our relationship. The new alliance is part of our strategy to enable more labs to gain the skills and confidence to accelerate their research designs, improve results, and transfer critical skills to other lab members – this is particularly important as surgical skills play a crucial role in research success and reproducibility of quality data. In addition, by offering improved access to advanced techniques, we believe that scientists will gain an increased understanding of physiological systems and associated diseases and become more optimally equipped to develop effective treatments. InsideScientific founding director Andy Henton remarks, “Together, we will support the global research community and ensure scientists have the critical surgical skills and vision they need to explore and discover new areas of physiology and medicine.”