DE PEDIATRIC COBRE: ALTERATIONS AND RENOVATIONS CORE

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The Life Science Center (LSC) at the Alfred I duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware is a Nemours-funded core facility designed for conducting biomedical research using animal models of human disease. The physical plant encompasses approximately 7,000 sq ft of research laboratory, maintenance and animal holding facilities. There are 10 animal holding rooms, 4 wet laboratories or small animal procedure rooms, 1 major surgery room, 1 imaging and procedure suite, and an irradiation room, in addition to storage rooms and an automated cleaning room. Staffing of the center includes a manager, two animal caretakers, a surgical services technician and an attending veterinarian. The existing physical plant is located in a separate building near the hospital/research center. The LSC is aging. In addition to the need for expanded space, upgrades to critical infrastructure components, such as the electrical system and the HVAC system, are critically needed. In addition, there is an LSC Annex that consists of two small rooms (G46/48) located on the ground floor of the Research building, which cannot be utilized for survival surgery in its present condition. The background and objectives of the A&R project relate to the large animal holding room and storage area. The principal investigator (Shaffer) and the COBRE TI projects of Drs. Tsuda and Chidekel require the use of large animals (sheep and/or pigs). To accommodate these needs, the current LSC general storage room (#109) will be modified to meet animal housing and storage requirements. Renovations to Room #109 will include the addition of a dividing wall to produce two separate rooms. One room with be labeled 109A and will remain in use for LSC storage; Room 109B will become a holding/housing room for large animals. Originally, a recovery surgery suite for large animals was included in the COBRE A&R project; however, the initial bid on the project far exceeded the available funding, and in year #2-3, a decision was made to eliminate that aspect of the A/R core and focus on the holding room project. The objective of the A&R Core is to provide a significant upgrade to our existing vivarium facilities (Nemours Life Science Center). The Center for Pediatric Research will significantly increase demands for vivarium space and will initiate the use of new animal models within the Nemours Biomedical Research Institute. While the animal facility is sufficient for current small animal work, it does not meet the needs of several researchers who require or will require specialized physiological studies in small animals, nor does it provide sufficient large animal vivarium or child-relevant animal models. The planned renovations will create a large animal holding room, a procedure room for survival surgery on large animals and a procedure room for survival surgery on small animals.