Biology is inherently complex, variable, and shaped by many confounding factors. Yet most animal studies rely on episodic, low-resolution measurements that capture isolated moments and miss transient responses occurring over time in biological systems. This leads to low-sensitivity measurements that miss vital biological signals and fail to consider the multidimensional nature of the systems they study.
As a result, more than half of published animal studies cannot be reliably reproduced (von Kortzfleisch et al 2024). These practices have led to research plagued by inconclusive outcomes with drug approval rates near 10% (Schuhmacher et al 2025) with efficacy failures driving half of project terminations (Sun et al 2022).
Envision is built to capture biology as it naturally occurs: continuously, in context, and without disruption. By integrating directly within the home cage environment, Envision enables a fundamentally different approach to in vivo research. A complete longitudinal view of behavior and physiology replaces episodic testing. This continuous foundation supports a new class of digital measures designed for confidence, sensitivity, and real-world relevance.
| Behavior Classifications | Details |
|---|---|
| Active | Moving but in a stationary position, e.g., grooming |
| Inactive | No detectable movement |
| Climbing | All four paws above the cage floor |
| Locomoting | Moving around the cage |
| Huddle New | Body pressed against another mouse's |
| Inferred Sleep | Inactive or huddle states lasting > 40s |
| Drinking | Drinking-like behavior at the bottle lixit |
| Feeding | Feeding-like behavior at the food hopper |
| Undetected New | Animal obscured or not individually identifiable |
| Movement Classifications | Details |
|---|---|
| Activity | Movement, measured in cm/s |
| Total Distance Traveled | Overall distance during locomoting bouts, in cm |
| Social Distance | Distance from other mice in the cage, in cm |
| Measurement | Details |
|---|---|
| Respiratory Rate | Breaths per minute for each animal |
| Measurement | Details |
|---|---|
| Motion Estimation | Cage-level activity tracked even when studies aren't running |
| Food Level | Automated monitoring of food hopper |
| Water Level | Automated monitoring of water bottle |
Behavioral phenotyping in Rett models is especially challenging with subtle disease phenotypes such as motor deficit, cognitive impairment, and repetitive behavior. The standard approach relies on subjective human scoring using the Bird score, which measures gait, mobility, breathing, and general condition.
Performing a study with both conventional observational methods and the continuous activity scores from the Envision Platform demonstrated the advantages of the Envision platform.
Figure 1: Optimized Rett syndrome disease progression analysis with Envision
Bird score data (cumulative score for observed activity) for WT and Mecp2 KO males evaluated with varying doses of a putative therapeutic compound during daylight hours. More significant differences in disease progression are detected with the Envision continuous monitoring system over the standard Bird score.
Envision is designed to deliver research-ready data from day one. A purpose-built training standard (LENS) ensures that digital measures are not only accurate, but biologically meaningful and reproducible across studies.
Envision operates natively within the Allentown Discovery™ IVC platform. Developed in close partnership between JAX and Allentown, this integrated system combines industry-leading animal housing with embedded imaging and sensing technology to enable continuous, non-invasive data capture. Each cage is equipped with high-resolution imaging allowing Envision to generate individual-level behavioral and physiological insights from group-housed animals without disruption, manual scoring, or experimental bias. The result is a complete, scalable solution that connects animal housing directly to high-quality, research-ready data.
Envision continuously, remotely and reliably measures key measures of animal health to provide unprecedented insight on the status of individuals, cages and studies. When animals are housed in Envision, husbandry staff can benefit from the intuitive, continuous outputs provided by HealthSense to rapidly detect changes in animal welfare.
Discover Envision's Health Monitoring Capabilities
JAX Envision is a secure, cloud platform accessible within a standard web browser. Build, manage your studies, and analyze your digital measure from a single application.
Studies using animals should ideally include continuous measurement and an approach that accounts for the multidimensional nature of biological systems. Historically, options have been limited that can transform continuous observations into reliable measures and enable the required analysis at the pace at which biology actually occurs until now.
Find out why leading researchers are advocating for multi-measure, systems based analysis for animal studies.
