Supplement to G20AI67347 to complete critical upgrades to the Rutgers RBL

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Overview of the RBL. The Rutgers RBL is located at 225 Warren Street in Newark, New Jersey. This location is within a few blocks of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and the Rutgers – Newark main campuses and a seven-minute walk from the Rutgers – New Jersey Medical and Dental School’s campus and the adjoining University Hospital. The RBL is physically attached to the International Center for Public Health (ICPH) building. The RBL provides > 50% of the BSL3 laboratory and BSL3 vivarium (ABSL3) space to the Rutgers campuses. This capacity is augmented by the ICPH building, which also contains additional BSL3 and ABSL3 space that is run along with the RBL as a single facility by the RBL Director, Dr. David Alland. The ICPH houses the Public Health Research Institute, the Rutgers – New Jersey Medical School Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, and the International Center for Tuberculosis Excellence. A Tuberculosis Clinic is situated in clinical space on the ICPH first floor. Together the facilities and activities in the ICPH building support and augment research performed in the RBL, and investigators performing high threat pathogen research make use of the resources available in the RBL. The first floor of the RBL is fully dedicated as an ABSL3 facility, which includes 6 procedure/housing suites for rodents and rabbits including housing rooms, custom-designed biosafety enclosures, tissue culture labs, procedure rooms, dedicated rooms for aerosol challenge, and a necropsy room. Animal care is supported by per diem fees, while most of the animal experiments are performed by scientists who are certified to work in the facility and supported by individual NIH grants. A new COVID-19 core within the ABSL3 includes BSL3 trained staff who can perform COVID-19 related experiments requiring BSL3 facilities for scientists who are not able to work in the BSL3 by themselves. This core is mostly supported by Rutgers University funds, with the intention to transition this core to eventually be self-sustaining financially. The second floor of the RBL is split equally between BSL3 Lab space and Biosafety Level 2 (BSL2) resident labs and support space, which are headed by several faculty members. The new COVID-19 BSL3 core also uses the facilities on the second floor RBL for COVID-19 core studies.