RENOVATION OF KROC BUILDING

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Research involving non-human primate (NHP) models for AIDS is pivotal in the world-wide effort to understand and control human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Not since polio research conducted in NHPs has there been a greater opportunity for primate centers to contribute unique expertise and resources to a global biomedical research effort aimed at mitigating human suffering. There is every indication that the need for NHPs for AIDS research will continue to expand with the recent national priority to develop an AIDS vaccine in the next decade and re-emergence of once apparently controlled disease such as tuberculosis on the heels of the HIV epidemic. To this end, the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center (ORPRC) is continuing to commit significant resources to bolster the Center's ability to conduct meritorious research on human infectious diseases for which NHPs are uniquely suited. In addition to work currently being conducted, programmatic expansion of the Division of Pathology and Immunology will more than double the investigators engaged in infectious disease research during the next five years. This expansion necessitates that the ORPRC increase its containment space to house NHPs. In addition to expansion in the area of infectious diseases, the ORPRC has made a significant commitment to the development of a unique animal resource , genetically identical rhesus monkeys. The Center's recent success in producing rhesus macaques using nuclear transfer and embryo transfer techniques represents an important advance that is expected to make available genetically identical rhesus macaques that will for the first time permit adoptive transfer experiments to rigorously define the contribution of cell-mediated immunity in vaccine strategies. It is anticipated that this new technology will also severely tax the availability of containment housing necessary to conduct research at the animal biosafety 2 or 3 level. The funds requested in this grant application fulfill two goals: 1) to increase the housing capability for NHPs in a specialized containment facility, and 2) modernize and renovate an older facility into a state-of-the-are facility. Renovation of this facility will result in a biocontainment facility with the capacity to house up to 64 additional NHPs in 5 rooms. Improvements will upgrade and correct deficiencies in a current older facility which is less than ideal for conventional housing of NHPs. This renovated containment facility will be ideal because it is physically isolated from other animal housing and use areas, as well as human use areas, such as offices and laboratories.