Swine Biomedical Research Facility for gnotobiotic, transgenic and translational medicine

本项目的总体目标是设计、建造和装备一个猪生物医学研究设施

The overall goal of this project is to design, construct and outfit a swine biomedical research facility on the campus of the fourth ranked College of Veterinary Medicine in the United States with ready access to trained veterinary specialists and state of the art biomedical (e.g. MRI, CT and nuclear medicine) facilities. The facility will provide additional high-quality space for biomedical research by NIH funded faculty from NC State University, Duke University and the University of North Carolina. The design and construction of the swine biomedical research facility will feature a free-standing masonry and steel building that will house the production and care of gnotobiotic and gene-edited swine, as well as state-of-the-art procedures (surgical, telemetry, arthroscopy, endoscopy). In addition, the unit includes flexible space that can accommodate pregnant and non-pregnant sows, and farrowing facilities to generate needed gene edited progeny from our own lines as well as those obtained from the NIH-supported NSRRC. Procedural space will provide a sterile surgery suite (two tables) to accommodate an increasing bioengineering need for endoscopic and arthroscopic procedures. The building will be placed immediately adjacent to space (referred to as the G20 facility) previously created for the use of severe combined immunodeficiency and other gene edited miniature or juvenile pigs (G20 OD020279) to allow for shared use of the space when possible. The proposed facility has been designed to maximize synergy and minimize overlap with the G20 space. Combined they will give us a high degree of flexibility and will allow us to conduct a broad range of research thus having a broad impact across multiple NIH Centers/Institutes. This project team is uniquely situated to drive the design and development of this facility and the expansion of this program. By serving in leadership roles within the College of Veterinary Medicine and NC State University we have the ability to provide access to the veterinary college biomedical campus, the research animal facilities and the state-of-the-art equipment in the tertiary care veterinary hospital. Our team of investigators has comparative medicine expertise and an extensive collaborative network with biomedical researchers at Duke and the University of North Carolina. As a team, we have successfully managed infrastructure grants, such as the expansion of facilities for housing and studying transgenic and non-transgenic miniature pigs (G20 OD020279) and building projects including a 20,000 square foot wet lab and GMP lab space.