Replacing an Animal Resource Facility Cage Washer.

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Creighton University is an independent, comprehensive Jesuit university located in Omaha, Nebraska. The mission of the Creighton University and its School of Medicine (CUSOM) is to develop and promote understanding of human health and the causes, treatments, and prevention of disease. To this end, Creighton University has been engaged in a major extension of its basic research capacity by expanding and renovating existing buildings and improving five core facilities. Creighton University, and this research faculty, are aware that state-of-the-art animal resource facilities are essential for the continued success of any modern research oriented institution. Creighton University has over the last few years invested $800,000 to expand and improve the mouse carrying capacity by changing our cage system to modern Thoren racks and investing in safety cabinets. We have also modernized our receiving area into a barrier facility for rapid and safe import of new mouse lines. These improvements in the Creighton University animal facility have let to AAALAC certification as of 2005. For this G20 grant we propose to replace the outdated cage washer of our 17,000 square-foot Animal Resource Facility. Specifically, we seek with this proposal financial support to renovate an area for housing of the new cage washer that will be purchased through Creighton University. This proposed renovation of the research areas of the Animal Resource Facility is an integrated part of Creighton's ongoing multi-phased construction, remodeling, and expansion of the Science Complex. The long-term objective for the proposed Animal Resource Facility renovation is to enhance our current research productivity and to provide the animal resources needed for current and future cutting-edge, NIH funded biomedical research. The specific aim of the project is to replace the existing outdated cage washer with a state-of-the-art system. Creighton University will purchase the cage washer and the autoclave. We hope to obtain through this application the support to renovate the existing space in the animal facility to house and operate effectively this new cage washer to generate a nucleus for an already planned barrier facility to house the many transgenic mouse lines already at Creighton University and the additional ones we will soon have.