EXTRAMURAL RESEARCH FACILITIES CONSTRUCTION

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH, Boston, MA) proposes to renovate and expand a swine research facility to accommodate its long-standing research program in transplantation biology involving inbred miniature swine (IMS). MGH currently receives more than $6.3 million annually in federal research support for 4 program projects and 7 research projects involving organ, bone marrow and pancreatic islet cell transplantation, xenotransplantation, immunosuppression, induced transplantation tolerance and molecular immunology. These animals currently are housed under a contractual agreement with a commercial animal facility at a different site in central Massachusetts, but this facility no longer meets current and projected needs of the scientists at MGH and other institutions who rely on these animals and/or their tissues. The proposed facility will provide approximately 20,000 sq ft of space for animal reproduction and housing, sterile tissue and organ harvest, transplantation surgery and tissue and organ preservation. This facility will enable the expansion of the colony from 425 animals to approximately 600 animals in accordance with current ILAR Guide standards and will allow us to conduct sterile procedures on site rather than transport animals twice a week from the current animal facility to our laboratory in Boston. It will allow our highly trained research and animal services staff to assume full control over the breeding and care of these valuable inbred lines rather than contract for animal care with another organization, and it will assure long-term access to the proposed site, which the current facility cannot assure. We anticipate that this advantage will accelerate the progress of our ongoing research and allow us to move into a new translational stage of our work in a representative large-animal model before proceeding to clinical studies.