Construction of New Animal Facility Annex for West Virginia University

描述(由申请人提供)：西弗吉尼亚大学罗伯特·C·伯德健康科学中心正在寻求通过在现有的内脏基础上建造一个新的动物设施来扩大对其生物医学研究活动和基础设施的支持。这项提案要求为新建22,000平方米净地提供资金。英国《金融时报》动物设施附属设施(AFA)，用于啮齿动物住所。AFA将解决西弗吉尼亚大学健康科学中心生物医学研究项目面临的两个主要问题。首先，我们目前的设施已有50多年的历史，几乎所有的原始建筑都完好无损。这个设施的设计或建造并不是为了满足现代实验动物间隔室苛刻的饲养和卫生要求，尽管努力进行维护，但实体植物和表面的性能随着时间的推移而恶化。因此，迫切需要升级的、现代化的动物住所。我们已经开始了一个紧急项目，更换我们的笼子清洗设施，并在翻新的空间内提供有限数量的新啮齿动物休息室。虽然这改善了笼子的洗涤性能和卫生状况，但对于更大的动物住所问题来说，这只是一项临时措施。其次，我们正在着手雄心勃勃地扩大我们的生物医学研究计划。我们有大量新的和未分配的湿实验室空间，以及招聘大量新调查人员的职位和资金。我们预计在严重依赖动物使用的研究领域将迅速扩大，因此必须开发动物设施资源来满足这些需求。我们目前的研究人员使用动物的速度一直在大幅增长，我们无法满足由于预计在未来3-4年内利用我们现有的设施增加约30名使用动物的新调查人员而产生的额外的动物设施需求。因此，为了满足更多生物医学研究人员的基础设施需求，我们必须建立一个性能优越的动物设施，至少在未来10年内有足够的能力容纳我们的动物。这项建议体现了以创造性、高效率和成本效益的方式解决这些问题。AFA的设计目的是直接连接到我们新的笼子清洗设施，创造一个有效的材料流动，与现有设施的活动整合，并以极大的经济性。除了为啮齿动物提供更高质量的住房外，两层的AFA设计为二楼作为屏障单元，带有转基因动物核心设施。一楼被设计为具有专用生物遏制核心(ABSL-3/BSL-3)的更传统设施的功能。这些单位将极大地加强对我们研究活动的基础设施支持，为我们的动物提供更好的科学和更好的居住条件。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The West Virginia University Robert C. Byrd Health Science Center is seeking to expand support of its biomedical research activity and infrastructure by constructing a new animal facility addition to the current vivarium. This proposal requests funding for the new construction of a 22,000 net sq. ft. Animal Facility Annex (AFA) for rodent housing. The AFA would resolve two major issues confronting the biomedical research programs at the WVU Health Sciences Center. First, our present facility is over 50 years old and virtually all of the original construction is intact. This facility was not designed or constructed to meet the demanding husbandry and sanitation requirements of a modern lab animal vivarium, and the performance of the physical plant and surfaces have deteriorated over time despite efforts to maintain it. Consequently, there is a pressing need for upgraded, modern animal housing. We have begun an urgent project to replace our cage wash facility and provide a limited number of new rodent holding rooms in renovated space. Although this improves cage wash performance and sanitation, it is only a temporary measure for the larger issue of animal housing. Secondly, we are embarking on an ambitious expansion of our biomedical research programs. We have substantial new and unassigned wet laboratory space, and the positions and funds to recruit a large number of new investigators. We expect a rapid expansion in research areas that depend heavily on the use of animals and consequently must develop the animal facility resources to meet these needs. Animal use by our current investigators has been growing at a substantial rate, and we cannot meet the additional animal facility demands resulting from the expected addition of about 30 new investigators using animals over the next 3-4 years with our existing facilities. Therefore, in order to meet the infrastructure demands of a larger number of biomedical researchers it is imperative that we build an animal facility to superior specifications of performance with adequate capacity to house our animal at least for the next 10 years. This proposal embodies the solution to these problems in a creative, efficient and cost-effective manner. The AFA is designed to connect directly to our new cage wash facility, creating an efficient flow of material, integration with the activities of the existing facilities, and at great economy. In addition to providing increased high quality capacity for housing rodents, the two-floor AFA is designed with the second floor functioning as a barrier unit with a transgenic animal core facility. The first floor is designed to function as a more conventional facility with a dedicated biocontainment core (ABSL-3/BSL-3). These units will greatly enhance the infrastructure support to our research activities, provide for better science and better housing conditions for our animals.