“Renovation of Building 29 laboratories at the New Iberia Research Center"

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The New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has undergone tremendous growth over the last 6 years adding some 3000 nonhuman primates for a current total of 9400 animals on site, and its research expenditure rose from ~19 to over 70 million between FY2016 and 2021. This expansion has been markedly accelerated during the COVID pandemic in 2 ways: 1) NIRC has supported the testing of no less than 12 COVID vaccines including the Pfizer-BioNTech as well as monitored the distribution and pharmacokinetics of convalescent antibodies via dynamic PET/CT imaging. 2) Owing to fact that many labs were closed across US institutions during 2020, NIRC scientists ensured that ongoing nonhuman primate experiments could be continued to avoid wasting precious resources. The expansion of NIRC’s in house HIV/AIDS research program is currently limited by the lack of additional research laboratory space to house new hires and their teams, with several candidates interested in joining NIRC and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, which in December 2021 obtained the coveted R1 status by the Carnegie Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. In preparation of such laboratory expansion, NIRC has completed the demolition of the third floor of Building 29 (~9100 sq ft) along with complete and certified asbestos removal. This space will be ideal to house up to 6 research teams in a combination of open shared as well as separate laboratory spaces, complete with offices, cubicles and a conference room. NIRC supports many onsite and collaborative programs on using nonhuman primates on various metabolic and infectious diseases, most notably HIV lentiviral pathogenesis supported by state of the art imaging capabilities including a whole body to single cell analysis approach, therapeutic approaches aimed at curing HIV, and an extensive program to prevent mucosal viral acquisition via protective experimental vaccines, vaginal and colorectal microbicides. In addition, NIRC has been a key contributor to the fight against COVID-19. The latter pandemic has severely depleted the supply of research macaques and NIRC has been expanding its colonies via the breeding and the transfer of new programs such as the NIAID funded SVEU breeding program. In addition to over 6500 Indian origin rhesus macaques, NIRC is breeding and using Mauritian cynomolgus macaques and African green monkeys as well as a few pigtailed macaques. This NHP program is largely supported by a state-of-the-art onsite clinical laboratory, expert veterinary care and equipment. NIRC has also established an expandable rodent vivarium in the support of research and is planning to build a BSL-3 facility complete with laboratories, rodent and monkey housing. The addition of research laboratories at NIRC will markedly enhance the ability of the Center to assemble a critical mass of scientists focused on HIV research, expanding the breath of the research program fully supported by NHP models, and compete for external funding.