The animal facility is one of Ci2A’s headliner facilities, with an area of ​​approximately 4,500 m2 and a capacity for 35,000 cages. It has a mouse and rat breeding area, an experimental housing area for keeping the animals under study, rooms for behavioural studies and electrophysiological recordings for understanding brain function. It also has a zebrafish room for the study of social behaviour.

The manager of the animal facility directs and inspects the necessary tasks of caesarean section rederivation to accommodate the rodent colonies currently in the Cajal Institute, as well as others necessary for the other linked centres, and the Ci2A itself. Likewise, they are in charge of the production and supply of experimental animals, the cryopreservation of embryos and the transgenesis service, working in close collaboration with the research teams for the generation of genetically modified animals in response to experimental demand. The animal facility also has a biosafety laboratory with a P3 protection level to facilitate research work.