Facility Management, Maintenance and Operation Core

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The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL) provides a vast array of services that support the discovery and development of countermeasures for biodefense and emerging infectious agents with unmet medical needs. Central to this mission is the support the RBL provides for basic and translational research that require biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) or animal BSL-3 (ABSL-3) containment. The long-term goal for the Facilities Management Maintenance and Operations Core (Facility core) is to provide the appropriate management team, staff, engineering controls and equipment necessary to support those research programs requiring ABSL-3 and BSL-3 containment without interruption and in compliance with federal regulations. The Facilities core will integrate oversight for (1) maintenance of the mechanical and vivarium infrastructure necessary for daily operation of the BSL-3 and ABLS-3 labs, (2) annual certification, preventative maintenance and monitoring of critical building systems (3) decontamination of equipment and materials leaving the facility, and (4) maintenance of basic lab scientific and biosafety equipment needed by RBL users such as Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPRs), freezers, CO2 incubators, etc. This will be achieved through the following aims and goals. Aim 1. Maintenance and operation of the mechanical infrastructure to support BSL-3 and ABLS3 labs including the replacement of critical components of the mechanical infrastructure that are currently beyond their normal life expectancy and the preventative maintenance contracts needed for periodic validation and certification of the labs of the building systems. Aim 2. Maintenance of the vivarium infrastructure to support research in ABSL-3 containment. This includes replacement of mouse caging systems that are at end-of-life and annual preventative maintenance and certification processes. Aim 3. Maintenance and certification of BSL-3 lab scientific and biosafety equipment used by researchers working in the BS-3 and ABSl-3 containment. This includes replacement of biosafety cabinets that have reached the end-of-life as well as basic scientific equipment that is heavily used by our researchers. The outcomes will be to extend the operating lifespan for the RBL, protect RBL staff and users from occupational exposures due to mechanical failures, prevent extended shutdown of the RBL due to mechanical failures, and improve efficiency and research productivity by removing bottlenecks and keeping the BSL-3 and ABSL-3 labs operating at full capacity.