A&R

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Alteration and Renovation Abstract UMaine’s Zebrafish Facility is critical to the majority of the Research Project Leaders (RPLs) on this COBRE. Overall, 12 UMaine faculty, their technicians, undergraduate, and graduate students use the Zebrafish Facility for their research on an annual basis. These faculty represent a number of different units at UMaine including the Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, the School of Biology and Ecology, and the School of Marine Sciences. Zebrafish have been used by UMaine faculty studying many different disease processes, including influenza, muscular dystrophy, and Candida fungal infections. The Zebrafish Facility is also relevant to UMaine faculty in disciplines such as electrical and computer engineering, who are developing devices and technologies to address the prevention and treatment of human disease processes. UMaine’s current zebrafish facility, located in the same building as the UMaine RPLs and the proposed Microscopy and Image Analysis Core, typically operates at 98-100% capacity. Although an excellent facility that is 93% base-funded by the University of Maine; the limited capacity hinders all investigators who use the zebrafish model. This facility is an essential resource for 3 COBRE RPLs to maintain and develop zebrafish lines used for their proposed research projects. As part of our COBRE we are proposing to expand UMaine’s Zebrafish to accomplish the following: increase nursery space to facilitate rapid growth of new lines, increase spawning space to increase experimental pace, and nearly double the capacity of our current system. We will do this by completing two specific aims. Specific Aim 1: Convert a Teaching Laboratory into an Additional Zebrafish Facility. This renovation project will convert a 1,242 ft2 teaching laboratory in Hitchner Hall, that is across the hall from the current facility, into an additional Zebrafish Laboratory. The addition of this lab to the overall zebrafish facility will more than double the available space for zebrafish housing. Renovations will include demolition of the current space, sloping of the floor, installation of a trench drain, HVAC, electrical work, and installation of a heat pump. Specific Aim 2: Purchase a centralized water circulation system, tank racks, and tanks. Within the scope of COBRE funding, as well as with a commitment of $154,000 from the Office of the Vice President for Research at UMaine, we will install the centralized infrastructure for the final number of tank racks, the immediate purchase and installation of racks and tanks that will immediately increase our capacity by 91%. Purchase of crossing shelves will increase daily breeding capacity from 25 to 175 tanks per day. This increased capacity is necessary for the COBRE research project leaders (RPLs) that use the zebrafish model and will be transformative for all of the zebrafish researchers at UMaine.