Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository Renovation

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We request funds to renovate and improve existing spaces to provide lab and office areas for the Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository (RUCDR), the designated core biosample processing and repository facility of four NIH Institutes; Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse; Digestive, Diabetes and Kidney Diseases; Drug Abuse; and Mental Health. RUCDR provides clinical biosample and data processing and varied repository services to more than 87 NIH-funded grantees researching complex diseases believed to have genetic or epigenetic etiological components, including autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, opiate abuse, nicotine addiction, alcoholism, inflammatory bowel disease, liver disorders, and kidney diseases. RUCDR maintains more than 200,000 individual biosamples, most as lymphoblastoid cell lines established by the RUCDR from subject blood samples submitted by NIH researchers. Also, during the last 5 years, RUCDR has distributed more than 600,000 DNA samples to NIH-approved researchers. Several-fold increases in sample numbers from greater numbers of NIH projects that RUCDR must now support and the broadening of the scope of the state-of-the art molecular biology services that RUCDR now provides has created severe space shortages, infrastructural inadequacies, and sample security and workflow issues. In response to these challenges RUCDR has been forced to borrow existing spaces that are not well suited to RUCDR activities and that are dispersed over three different buildings. However, these spaces must be vacated for non-RUCDR uses in the near future. RUCDR now requires task-designed, easily accessible and contiguous laboratory space that does not currently exist within a single area. We propose renovation of the east end of the 2nd floor of C Wing, Nelson Biology Laboratories (NBL) to create facilities for automated (robotic) nucleic acid extraction, distribution and molecular analyses. The west end of the 2nd floor C Wing will provide interactive offices and work spaces for computational and statistical genetics faculty members affiliated with RUCDR and their research groups. Both areas are one floor directly above the existing RUCDR lab and administrative space in 1st floor C wing NBL. We also propose (1) additions to the Annex II building to produce a more secure and efficient back-up storage site for viable human cells cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen, (2) extension of the existing vacuum-jacketed, stainless steel liquid nitrogen delivery piping in Annex I to accommodate greater numbers of storage tanks and (3) expansion of the existing conference/continuing education room to accommodate daily task-oriented meetings of existing employees and new hires whose jobs will be created through this renovation.