Renovation of a Multi-User Animal Research Facility

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Funds are provided to renovate the Multi-User Animal Research Facility (MARF) at Hofstra University, a Primarily Undergraduate Institution. Renovation of the MARF will create a state-of-the-art research facility supporting a rich research and research training environment for organismal biology. Areas of the MARF will be renovated that directly increase the number, scope and range of research experiments that can be performed. The renovations will provide research rooms that have precise climate control which to date has been impossible in the MARF. The renovations will provide experimental rooms with precise temperature control, improved lighting with reliable light:dark cycles, and appropriate electrical supply to support modern scientific equipment. The modernized facility will bring together in a single location an increased number of research groups spanning multiple disciplines and educational levels. It will increase research dialog and collaborations between Hofstra and other institutions. The research programs of all individuals using the renovated MARF will be greatly enhanced and projects that would otherwise be unfeasible will be conducted. Experiments proposed in the renovated facility include studies of physiological and functional performance in lizards, hydrodynamics of feeding in fishes, and chemoreception in echinoderms. The facility will be a platform to stimulate progressive thought and conduct new studies, such as those that focus on the role of temperature in physiological and biomechanical phenomena. This will stimulate interest in, and desire to conduct research in the modernized MARF from a broader range of individuals particularly from underrepresented groups. Increased dissemination of results will come from researchers and students that use the renovated MARF and present their research at national and international meetings.