USOO9578853B1 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 9,578,853 B1 Heath et al. (45) Date of Patent: Feb. 28, 2017 (54) CODING FOR ANIMAL ID MARKING 2008/0252417 A1* 10, 2008 Thomas .................. B66C 13/46 340/10.1 (71) Applicant:- - - Mousera, Inc, San Mateo, CA (US) 2008/0252454 A1* 10/2008 Rodgers ........... GO6K340,572.1 19,07345 (72) Inventors: Kyle Howard Heath, Menlo Park, CA 2011/004383.6 A1* 2/2011 Yanagisawa ........... GO6K 1,121 s s 358/19 (US); Jonathan Betts-Lacroix, 2012/0226288 A1* 9/2012 Mays ..................... AOK 11 OO Belmont, CA (US) 606116 (Continued) (73) Assignee: Vium, Inc, San Mateo FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 ES 20.9 ki 358, U.S.C. 154(b)(b) by 0O. daysdav.S. (Continued) (21) Appl. No.: 14/872,053 OTHER PUBLICATIONS (22) Filed: Sep. 30, 2015 Hidalgo, Manuel; Patient-derivef xenograft models; Cancer Dis (51) Int. Cl. covery AACR Journals; Jul. 15, 2014; 17 pages. G06K 7/10 (2006.01) (Continued) AOIK II/00 (2006.01) (52) U.S. Cl Primary Examiner — Thien M Le CPC .......... 401K 11/005 (2013.01): 401K 11/006 (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm Kim Rubin (2013.01) (s.7) ABSTRACT (58) Field of Classification Search CPC .... A01K 11/00: A01K 11/004: A01K 1/0613: Symbologies Suitable for use marking codes on rodent tails AO1 K 2207f15: A01 K 11 FOOS: Aoi K are disclosed, for both machine-readable and human-read 11 FOO6 able codes, and those codes combined. Codes comprising USPC ................................ 235/375,462.01 462.45 both a human-readable and a machine-readable portion may See application file for complete searchs history. associate- 0 with an animal ID within one study, and a study ID within a Vivarium, respectively. Ahuman-readable code uses (56) References Cited a Subset of an alphanumeric symbol set. A machine-readable code uses a vine-code with a visible spine aligned with the U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS rodent’s tail. Both symbologies support a system for delet ing symbols and correcting codes marked in error. Both 4,864,302 A * 9/1989 Bowers ................ AOK 11,006 symbologies use symbol sets comprising only horizontal 5.725.261 A 3, 1998 Rahn 235,462.15 and Vertical line segments. Both symbologies include a 2002/0030712 A1* 3/2002 Schreiber. G06K 7/12 sparse mapping table for mapping marking codes to animal 235,494 and study ID, and for error detection and for code re-use. 2005/0086117 A1* 4/2005 Kanisawa .......... G06Q 10/0637 705/736 29 Claims, 7 Drawing Sheets 101 102 a 103 US 9,578,853 B1 Page 2 (56) References Cited U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 2015/0302421 A1* 10, 2015 Caton .................. G06Q 30/018 705/17 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS JP 2005189023. A 7/2005 WO WO2008O15277 A2 2, 2008 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Jacobs, Valerie; Current review of in vivo GBM rodent models; ASN Neuro; 3(3):art:e?)0063.doi:1042/AN20110014; Jul. 8, 2011; 11 pages. Lodhia, K. A.; Prioritizing therapeutic targets using Xrnograft mod els; Elsevier; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbcan.2015.03.002; Mar. 14, 2015; 12 pages. Malaney, Prerna; One mouse, one patient paradigm; Elsevier; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icanlet. 2013.10.010; Oct. 14, 2013; 12 pageS. Morton, Christopher L.; Nature Protocols; Nature Publishing Group; doi:10.1038/nprot.2007.25; Feb. 22, 2007; 4 pages. Oh, Taemin; Murine models for the study of glioblastoma immunotherapy; Journal of Translational Medicine; doi: 10.11867 1479-5876-12-107; Apr. 29, 2014; 10 pages. Williams, Samuels A.; Patient-derived xenografts, the cancer stem cell paradigm; Laboratory Investigation; USCAP, Inc; 0023-6837/ 13; Aug. 5, 2013; 13 pages. Bell, Joline; Labstamp System: An Alternative Medthod of ID; Powerpoint for demos, Somark Innovations; 2011; 25 pages. * cited by examiner U.S. Patent Feb. 28, 2017 Sheet 1 of 7 US 9,578,853 B1 Fig. 1 U.S. Patent Feb. 28, 2017 Sheet 2 of 7 US 9,578,853 B1 Fig. 2 PRIOR ART U.S. Patent Feb. 28, 2017 Sheet 3 of 7 US 9,578,853 B1 \ Fig. 4 / U.S. Patent Feb. 28, 2017 Sheet 4 of 7 Fig. 50 B K MO QS W WXZ U.S. Patent Feb. 28, 2017 Sheet S of 7 US 9,578,853 B1 Fig. 6 U.S. Patent Feb. 28, 2017 Sheet 6 of 7 US 9,578,853 B1 Fig. 7A OO Fig. 7B 3B 103 O4 Fig. 7C N 105 U.S. Patent Feb. 28, 2017 Sheet 7 Of 7 US 9,578,853 B1 Fig. 8 US 9,578,853 B1 1. 2 CODING FOR ANIMAL ID MARKING two hands often required to use equipment accuracy and reliability may not be computable or trace FIELD OF THE INVENTION able slow and expensive to mark animals The invention relates to management of animals in a 5 limited through rate for marking new animals Vivarium for both husbandry and study purposes. More animals may have to be a minimum age to mark specifically it relates to uniquely identifying animals in the may work only in-cage or may work only out-of-cage Vivarium. Yet more specifically, it is directed to marking, either applying marks or reading marks may not be sterile Such as by tattooing, both machine-readable and human animal may have to anesthetized to be marked. readable identification codes on an animal. Such as tattooing 10 For human-readable markings weaknesses include: a combination of alphanumerics and a barcode on the tail of often not machine-readable a rodent. may not be readable in the dark—the animals’ natural activity period BACKGROUND reading may be unreliable 15 typically has a small code space Vivariums house a number of animals, typically test requires manual data entry to link animal ID to stored data animals, such as mice, in a number of cages, often a large likely not suitable for machine marking number. The test animals are frequently used to test drugs, high labor cost for marking genetics, animal strains, husbandry experiments, methods of accuracy and reliability may not be computable or trace treatment, procedures, diagnostics, and the like. We refer to able all such uses of a Vivarium as a study. limited through rate for marking new animals The animals in a vivarium must be observed, either slow through rate for marking new animals. manually by humans or by automated means, such as by the Embodiments of this invention overcome many of the use of video cameras and video analytics Software. Com weaknesses of prior art. parisons of animals are the basis of any study result. 25 There are a large number of animal characteristics, attri SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION butes, or behavior that may be of interest in a study. We refer to all such observable aspects of animals as “behaviors.” We use the term “animal code” for one or more codes that including blood, saliva, feces, urine, breath, and fur attri are placed on the animal. They consist of symbols from a butes. Observations of behaviors may be manual or auto 30 symbol set, where the total of all combinations of symbols mated and may be invasive or non-invasive. They may occur from the symbol set, as placed on the animal, is the size of in the animal’s home cage; or in a separate observation or the code space. test cage or apparatus; or via pathology or other chemical, We use the term “animal ID' as a unique ID for an animal biological or analytical analysis. Observations and results within a study or within another scope. There may be a may use statistics or aggregated behaviors. 35 mapping from the animal code that is marked on the animal For observing all such behaviors, it is critical that the to the animal ID. observed behaviors be reliably, easily, and quickly linked to Embodiments of this invention include marking codes on one particular animal. It is also necessary that marking the an animal using a combination comprising both a machine animals be consistent, fast, reliable and low cost. Prior art readable portion and a human-readable portion. uses a variety of animal identification systems, including 40 Embodiments of this invention place codes via tattooing one animal per cage, ear notches, ear tags, foot and toe pad on a rodent tail. tattooing, embedded RFID, attached RFID, body tattoos, Embodiments of this invention include a human-readable and tail tattoos. Some prior art uses human-readable mark portion that is also machine-readable. ings, such as ear notches or ID numbers tattooed on a tail. The machine-readable portion, in one embodiment, is a Some prior art uses machine-readable markings, such as 45 vine code. A particular code is described below. RFIDs, ear-tag barcodes, and tail barcodes. The human-readable portion is, in one embodiment, one In an ideal world, each animal might receive a globally or more alphanumeric characters from a reduced set of unique ID that is never re-used. However, that requires a alphanumeric characters where the reduced set has the large code space, which in return requires complex mark attributes of (i) symbols that are easily mistaken for a ings. In prior art practice, markings are often in a very Small 50 different symbol are deleted from the symbol set; (ii) all code space and other systems are used to uniquely identify symbols may be drawn and easily read using only orthogo an animal. One Such prior art method is a marking that is nal, linear line segments.