During her bachelor of science with honours degree in physiology and anatomy, the 23-year-old University of Otago student built a cage — not just any old cage but a specialised, housing system, capable of tracking a wide array of metabolic and physiological parameters in animals.
For conditions that affect hundreds of thousands of people every day, like chronic stress or depression, the data collected from her cages could be reliably translated to human health, she said.
Miss Woolf said there were already similar cages on the market, but they often costed millions of dollars, they were difficult to maintain and required specialist training to use, which made them inaccessible to many research groups.
So she decided to build her own low-cost, customisable system using 3-D printing, open-source tools and "a whole lot of trial and error".
Eventually, she came up with the behavioural phenotyping cage (BPC), which had turned what was once a costly, proprietary technology into a platform that any research group could build, modify and improve.
At its core, Miss Woolf said the BPC was an automated smart housing system that continuously recorded an animal’s physiological and behavioural patterns using a collection of automated devices.
"For example, we have the sipper device — a 3-D-printed and custom-designed device which monitors drinking behaviour.
"This allows us to assess changes in hydration or motivation, which can indicate stress or depression-like states."
It also has a feeding device which tracks "feeding and reward-related" behaviour.
"Mice learn to earn food pellets through a simple task, while the device records their engagement and success.
"The BPC is also equipped with devices which allow us to monitor overall activity and voluntary exercise through devices known as the rodent activity detector and a custom designed running wheel."
Those devices employed motion sensors which capture movement throughout the BPC, detecting periods of rest, exploration or unusual inactivity, she said.
"Reduced activity or altered daily patterns can reflect stress, disrupted sleep-wake cycles, illness, or emotional changes.
"High resolution cameras mounted above the cage further enhances monitoring."
Miss Woolf said a major part of her honours year involved learning new skills to bring the BPC to life — like computer coding, soldering and physically building the cages.
"It was a steep learning curve, but being able to combine those technical skills with scientific design made the process incredibly rewarding."
Because her BPCs were low cost and customisable, they had become popular in other university labs around Otago and New Zealand. Some were even being used in labs overseas.
Miss Woolf is now studying medicine at Otago, but continues to be involved in research at the Kim Lab.
Unfortunately, she was unable to take a patent out on the BPC because it was built using open-source technology, she said.
So millions of dollars will not be coming her way just yet.
"Looks like my student loans will have to do the heavy lifting when it comes to paying for medical school."
