Central Sanitation for Animal Equipment to Sustain Biomedical Research at UCSD

描述（由申请人提供）：在过去十年中，UCSD的体内研究资金翻了一番，而使用的主要物种（小鼠）在同一时期几乎增加了两倍。通过笼舍和设备的适当卫生和消毒实现的清洁度对于提供允许这些动物健康和相关研究成功的环境仍然至关重要。目前，卫生设施，重复在17个UCSD研究动物园，已成为一个主要的运营和维护费用，并占据了大量的空间，在这些动物园。因此，已经开发了一种方法，UCSD新颖，其中笼舍和设备将在中央独立卫生设施（CSF）中远离研究动物园进行消毒或灭菌。该提案要求提供资金，用于建造一个12 092平方英尺的CSF，并随后将现有卫生设施（细胞和分子医学西部研究设施的乔治帕拉德实验室）改造成迫切需要的研究和程序空间。该提案的具体目标是：1）在新设计的动物园中扩大直接研究空间; 2）在已建立的UCSD动物园中扩大现有的研究计划; 3）减少维持健康研究动物所需的自然资源量。UCSD CSF将允许与三个新计划的动物园相关的新研究项目立即扩大20%至30%。一个新的CSF将额外使18，000平方英尺有资格转化为直接研究动物园空间。此外，集中笼卫生活动估计每年可节省1850万加仑水，2420万磅蒸汽和56万千瓦电力。如果获得资助，该提案将带来数百个新的工作岗位，并将在整个数百万美元的AAALAC认证的UCSD动物研究企业中实现。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Funding for in-vivo based research at UCSD has doubled over the past decade while the primary species used (mice) has almost tripled during this same time period. Cleanliness achieved from adequate sanitation and sterilization of caging and equipment remains critical to providing environments that allow for the health of these animals and the success of the associated research. Currently, sanitation facilities, duplicated at seventeen UCSD research vivaria, have become a major operating and maintenance expense and occupy a significant amount of space in these vivaria. Therefore, an approach has been developed, novel to UCSD, where caging and equipment will be sanitized or sterilized away from research vivaria in a central stand alone sanitation facility (CSF). This proposal requests funds for construction of a 12,092 ft2 CSF and the subsequent phase one transformation of existing sanitation facilities (the George Palade Laboratories at Cellular and Molecular Medicine West Research Facility) into desperately needed research and procedure space. Specific aims of this proposal are 1) to expand direct research space in newly designed vivaria; 2) to expand existing research programs at established UCSD vivaria, and 3) to decrease the amount of natural resources required to maintain healthy research animals. A UCSD CSF will allow for an immediate twenty to thirty percent expansion of new research programs associated with three newly planned vivaria. A new CSF will additionally make 18,000 ft2 eligible for transformation into direct research vivarium space. Additionally, centralizing cage sanitation activities carries the potential for an estimated annual savings of 18.5 million gallons of water, 24.2 million pounds of steam, and 560,000 kilowatts of electricity. If funded, this proposal will result in hundreds of new jobs and the benefits will be realized across the entire multi-million dollar, AAALAC accredited, UCSD animal research enterprise.