The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation has provided funding to support short-term research projects with the goal of generating preliminary data for extramural grant applications. Selected research projects will be awarded up to $5,000. Funding can be requested to utilize existing germ-free mice (Swiss-Webster and C57Bl/6) or to rederive a conventional mouse line to germ-free. If funded, an animal use protocol must be approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee prior to initiating animal studies.