Renovation for Safety & Long-Term Support of Rodent Research at Univ. Cincinnati -
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Medical Sciences Building (MSB) animal facility at the University of Cincinnati was constructed 35 years ago to house primarily large-animal species. MSB is currently unable to meet the present and future needs for bench and translational research utilizing barrier-level and transgenic rodents. Without the ability to improve the MSB core facility, UC would be handicapped in recruiting top scientists and providing a supportive, innovative environment that will lead to new scientific discoveries, more jobs, and economic growth. There is an urgent need, therefore, to remodel the MSB animal facility to meet current and future rodent-research requirements. The objective of this project is to optimize and contemporize MSB animal care space; producing larger, more efficient housing and procedure rooms, increasing vivarium security, reducing human exposure to allergens and zoonotic agents, and eliminating inter-building transport of animal cages for sterilization/autoclaving, making it more energy and water efficient. The proposed renovations would support $53,538,423 ongoing, extramurally funded grants and $66,823,919 that are pending. The rationale underlying this request is that updating this facility will increase the quality of animal care, the prominence of rodent-related research, decrease allergen exposure of users/employees of the facility, and allow continued expansion of research to meet present and future needs of researchers at the University of Cincinnati. We will attain our objective by pursuing the following specific aims: 1. Increase animal space by eliminating the original, outdated facility design of clean/dirty corridor systems for large-animal species to form a barrier-housing facility with expansion of rodent housing and creation of additional procedure rooms for an increased number of barrier-housed/transgenic animals that will meet the future needs of UC researchers. Renovation will in- crease utilizable animal space from 14,985 to 25,573 sq ft and mouse housing capacity from 13,391 to 23,380 cages, an approximate 70% expansion in each case. 2. Optimize space use by facility employees by relocating administrative/locker room space outside the MSB vivarium reducing human exposure to animal allergens and zoonotic diseases. Separation of the personnel and animal spaces will reduce unnecessary facility access, increase security, and minimize exposure to zoonotic agents/animal allergens while facilitating more efficient utilization of the vivarium. 3. Increase water and energy efficiency of steam sterilization by purchasing two energy/water-efficient, floor-loading Getinge GE 92222 large autoclaves to centralize MSB autoclaving, thus improving efficiency by autoclaving larger loads, eliminating staff transport of caging and equipment to other facilities for autoclaving while reducing water and energy use with newer, more efficient autoclaves. The 70% projected expansion of rodent cages for MSB will benefit the University of Cincinnati by increasing efficiency of animal housing into larger rooms that will be easier to clean and monitor animal health care, improving efficiency of cage and equipment sterilization to meet current and future research demands.
