Equipment and Instrument Infrastructure Improvement for the MMRRC at UC Davis

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Equipment and Instrument Infrastructure Improvement for the MMRRC at UC Davis ABSTRACT & SCOPE OF WORK The Mutant Mouse Resource and Research Center at the University of California, Davis (MMRRC) is pleased to submit this administrative supplement for up to 1 year of support in response to ORIP’s participation in PA- 20-272, “Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements” specifically related to support alterations and renovations (A&R) of facilities and/or purchase of instruments and equipment in support of non-AIDS research. This application proposes the purchase and installation of equipment and instrumentation to ensure and increase the quality, rigor, and capability of husbandry, production, and phenotyping of mutant mouse lines by the MMRRC. Doing so will increase the capability and services of the MMRRC for meeting the needs of the biomedical research community conducting NIH-funded research. Specifically, this application requests funds to enhance and expand capacity and functionality of our existing SPF-vivaria facilities by 1) upgrading extant individually-ventilated mouse caging system, adding specialized environmental housing capacity, and installing a water bottle filling station to substantially increase the quality and capacity of specific pathogen-free (SPF) housing for MMRRC mice; 2) obtaining and incorporating specialized instrumentation and equipment to facilitate new and implement improvements to mouse phenotyping capabilities that add substantively to research integrity, rigor, and reproducibility, 3) procuring and operating laboratory instrumentation for in vitro reagent preparation and quality control/quality assurance processes and for in vivo production of mutant mouse lines. Funding of this project will accomplish 5 things. First, it will dramatically increase specialized and high-quality mouse housing capacity that enable additional and more complex mouse-related studies than we can currently perform simultaneously, thus accelerating and extending our abilities to respond to a greater variety of researcher needs and in a more-timely manner than currently. Second, it will expand existing and enable new and innovative phenotyping modalities to respond to users’ needs for more extensive and comprehensive testing and analysis of their mutant mouse lines, especially in musculoskeletal, physiological, and behavioral phenotyping of male and female cohorts, aging mice, and under challenge (e.g., diet, infectious disease, etc) conditions. Third, it will improve rigor, reproducibility, and transparency in production and phenotyping activities. Fourth, it will enable more cost- efficient operations and services for user of the MMRRC, such as monitoring body weight kinetics, performing necropsy and harvesting and archiving tissues (organs, cells, blood, intestinal contents, DNA, urine, etc) that will be made available to researchers upon request online at www.mmrrc.org. Fifth, it will further support efforts by the MMRRC to be granted approved vendor status by institutions across the country, facilitating rapid dissemination and sharing of mouse lines to requesting investigators. Together, these upgrades will significantly enhance our ability to meet the increased expectations of MMRRC clientele for fully verified and validated mouse models and optimized production and phenotyping services. Further, because these upgrades are MMRRC-project specific, they are beyond the support provided by the UC Davis campus for basic operations and maintenance. This proposal directly addresses a number of the stated objectives of this special NIH call. The parent peer-reviewed NIH funded grant (U42OD012210) has been competitively renewed (as of January 1, 2020) for 5 years. A budget of $424,235 direct costs ($426,218 total costs) requested for the remaining months of the current grant year (until January 31, 2022) is less than half the annual total direct cost budget of the parent grant. The proposed activities all fall within the scope of the parent award, which includes archiving, phenotyping, and distributing investigator-derived and Center-produced mutant mouse lines.