EXTRAMURAL RESEARCH FACILITIES IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

描述（由申请人提供）： 宾夕法尼亚大学（UPenn）医学院是美国首屈一指的生物医学研究机构之一。 2002财政年度，仅美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）的资助就达到了3.47亿美元，在所有学术医学中心中排名第二。 在过去的十年中，宾夕法尼亚大学赞助的研究增长了近200%。 由于这项工作的大部分依赖于啮齿动物系统和模型，在此期间，小鼠群体每年以近20%的速度扩张。 因此，尽管积极的设施扩张，目前的动物收容能力几乎饱和，资助或计划的研究活动处于危险之中。 鉴于这些事实，资金要求建立一个国家的最先进的啮齿动物屏障设施内资助的新的研究大楼将由医学院和兽医学院的教师共同占用。 该啮齿动物屏障设施将可容纳约10，000只小型鼠笼。 该项目的主题范围将支持三个积极研究的领域，这些领域获得了NIH的大量资助。 他们是干细胞生物学，传染病和生物恐怖主义，遗传学。 一个新的啮齿动物屏障设施，以支持这些主题的研究将巩固这项研究，更大的合作工作之间的调查和提高资源效率，同时显着减少过度拥挤的条件下经历的其他啮齿动物设施在校园里。 医学院致力于保持与AAALAC国际的全面认证。该设施将符合AAALAC标准，提高啮齿动物住房的质量和数量，并更充分地满足NIH资助的研究的需求。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) School of Medicine is one of the nations premier biomedical research institutions. Funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) alone totaled $347 million in FY2002, which ranks second among all academic medical centers. Growth in UPenn's sponsored research was nearly 200 percent during the past decade. As much of this work is dependent upon rodent systems and models, the murine colony expanded at nearly 20 percent annually during this time. Thus despite aggressive facility expansion, current animal housing capacity is nearly saturated, and funded or planned research activities are in jeopardy. In view of these facts, funds are requested to build a state-of-the-art rodent barrier facility within a funded new research building to be jointly occupied by faculty from the School of Medicine and the School of Veterinary Medicine. This rodent barrier facility will have a capacity of approximately 10,000 small mouse cages. The thematic scope of this project will be to support three areas of active research that receive significant NIH funding. They are Stem Cell Biology, Infectious Disease and Bioterrorism, and Genetics. A new rodent barrier facility to support these themes of research will consolidate this research for greater collaborative work among investigators and increased resource efficiencies while significantly decreasing overcrowded conditions experienced in other rodent facilities on campus. The School of Medicine is committed to maintaining full accreditation with AAALAC International. This facility will meet AAALAC standards, improve the quality and quantity of rodent housing, and more adequately meet the needs of NIH-funded research.