Enhance Facilities for Infectious Disease Imaging

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests funds to complete construction of an Imaging Facility devoted to work with BSL- 3 pathogens and Select Agents and to provide an underground electrical feed to the Imaging Facility and the rest of the Infectious Disease Research Center. The Imaging Facility will be located within the Judson M. Harper Research Complex on the Foothills Campus of Colorado State University. It will be part of the Infectious Disease Research Center (IDRC), adjacent to the Rocky Mountain Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RMRBL). The Imaging Facility was originally part of a Research Innovation Center construction project, but budgetary constraints at the Design Development phase of construction caused the University to core-and-shell the Imaging Facility. This request will allow the completion of this Imaging Facility and provide an essential main electrical feed to supply secure, steady and reliable power for state-of-the-art imaging equipment, high-technology sequencing and analytical laboratory machines, HVAC, and safety/security needs at the Center. Completion of this project will provide the following benefits to the University and the biomedical research community. 1). New space will be created for BSL-2 and BSL-3 infectious disease research. 2). The Imaging Facility will enable the generation of diagnostic information on translational stage studies of new therapeutics and devices taking place in the Infectious Disease Research Center by providing real-time in vivo images. 3). The Imaging Facility build-out will provide space for animal facilities and allow imaging within a BSL-3 contained environment. 4). The Imaging Facility will be constructed within a secure, controlled-access facility, assuring the safe conduct of animal experiments under BSL-3 conditions. 5). Construction of the Imaging Facility (Specific Aim 1 of this proposal) will improve the conduct of PHS-funded research projects, and greatly expand the scope and nature of biomedical experiments conducted on campus. Researchers currently using the RMRBL are members of the Rocky Mountain Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefence and Emerging Infectious Disease Research (RMRCE), and the Imaging Facility will enhance their research programs dramatically. The Proteomics/Genomics Laboratory, a core laboratory of the RMRCE, has been impacted by frequent power fluctuations and interruptions, a deficiency that will be addressed by Specific Aim 2 of this proposal. 6). Completion of the Imaging Facility will enhance the networked environment available for biomedical research, such as capture of high-resolution images of infected and uninfected animals, both as they develop disease and as therapeutic agents interfere with or prevent the progression of infectious diseases. CSU's commitment to sustainable building is evidenced by seven concurrent LEED gold buildings under construction, one of which is the Research Innovation Center on the Foothills Campus. The University has also recently launched a College for Global Environmental Sustainability, and the University administration has issued directives towards achieving energy neutral buildings by offsetting conventional supplies with solar and wind sources. The current project will be LEED certified. An economic model determined that this project will directly support 59 full-time jobs with an additional 37.4 spin-off positions, generating $4,630,895 in total payroll in the first year, and $406,298 in total ongoing economic impact from job creation. This proposal requests funds ($6,230,546) for an integrated project of completing a core-and-shell research facility plus providing vital electric infrastructure. Equipment requested include Techiplast animal caging and transfer racks for mice, Thoren caging and transfer racks for guinea pigs, biological safety cabinets designed and equipped for animal cage changing and animal manipulation, and shielding equipment required for work with radioactive materials associated with PET/CT imaging. Rationale: The Infectious Disease Imaging Facility will provide a unique capability that will be an important resource unavailable elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain region, and add to the limited national capabilities currently available. This Facility will vastly improve the research tools available to a very strong infectious disease research community in Fort Collins, and will be of major interest to biotechnology/discovery companies, federal bioscience departments and laboratories, both regionally and nationally. Completion of the underground power feed will address a long-standing concern about the lack of a secure, redundant power feed to the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, greatly enhance the security of the complex, and provide a steady, reliable, and uninterrupted power source.