IMPROVED BARRIER HOUSING FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH BLDG

描述（由申请人提供）：该计划的总体目标是增加宾夕法尼亚大学医学院生物医学研究大楼（BRB）动物园内老鼠住房空间的数量和生物安全性。BRB是该学院最大的单个组成部分（27,000 NSF），支持49名教师的研究工作，用于生物医学研究的直接成本超过4800万美元。项目目标是通过两个紧密相连的具体目标来实现的：(1)改善对小鼠的屏障保护，为每个动物房舍购买通风换房站，并利用换房站在换笼和动物处理过程中保护小鼠；(2)将共用手术房改造为鼠房，增加840笼的饲养能力。尽管采取了最佳做法，但在过去16个月内，BRB屏障设施经历了5次传染性病原体小鼠肝炎病毒（MHV）和蛲虫的暴发。这些疾病的爆发对学院的研究活动造成了毁灭性的影响，并导致许多动物安乐死。在这些事件中，MHV和蛲虫迅速蔓延到套房内的多个房间，这表明遏制失败与动物舍的设计/使用有关。BRB内的动物套房共用一个手术室，使用通风的笼子，没有换洗站；因此，传染性病原体的传播可能通过开放式推车上动物室的笼子的打开和/或共用操作空间的使用发生。我们的建议是为每个房间提供换洗站，这些换洗站也可以作为研究人员的处理站，并将6间套房中的3间的公共手术室转换为专用的住房单元。将手术室改建为住房将使动物饲养场的容量增加840个笼子，这解决了扩大动物住房的关键机构需求。在过去的12年里，学院参与了一项强有力的设施发展计划，以匹配NIH非同寻常的231%的资金增长。尽管做出了这样的努力，在研究中使用老鼠模型的需求，在过去的六年里增长了惊人的239%，并没有得到充分满足；目前的设施普查超过了最大容量的80% (BRB为85%)，教师们已经确定了一个尚未满足的需求，即立即增加52%的容量。因此，如果没有这笔拨款，我们将严重阻碍学院正在进行的生物医学研究，并极大地限制项目的发展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant):The overall goal of the program is to increase the quantity and biosecurity of mouse housing space in the Biomedical Research Building (BRB) vivarium at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. BRB is the largest single component of the School's vivaria (27,000 NSF), and supports the research efforts of 49 faculty with more than $48 million in direct costs for biomedical research. The project goal is accomplished through two closely linked specific aims: (1) Improve barrier protection for mice by purchasing ventilated change stations for each animal housing room, and utilizing change stations both to protect mice during cage changing and during animal procedures/handling; and (2) To increase the housing capacity of the vivarium by 840 cages through conversion of shared procedure rooms into mouse housing rooms. Despite best practices, the BRB barrier facility has experienced 5 outbreaks of the infectious agents mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) and pinworms within the past 16 months. These outbreaks have had a devastating effect on the research activities of the faculty and resulted in euthanasia of numerous animals. During these events, MHV and pinworms have rapidly spread to multiple rooms within suites, and suggest that containment failure is linked to the design/use of the vivarium. Animal suites within BRB share a common procedure room and use ventilated cages without change stations; as a result, the spread of infectious agents can occur through either the opening of cages in the animal room on open carts and/or the use of shared procedure space. Our proposal is to supply change stations to each room, which may then also serve as handling stations for researchers, and to convert the common procedure room in 3 of 6 suites to dedicated housing units. Conversion of procedure rooms to housing will increase the capacity of the vivarium by 840 cages, which address a critical institutional need for expanded animal housing. The School engaged in a robust facility development plan over the past 12 years to match an extraordinary 231% increase in NIH funding. Despite this effort, the need for use of the mouse model in research, which grew by an astounding 239% in the past six years, was not fully met; the current facility census is in excess of 80% maximal capacity (>85% in BRB), and the faculty have identified an as yet unmet need for a 52% immediate increase in capacity. Thus, without the funds provided by this grant we will significantly impede ongoing biomedical research at the School, and dramatically restrict program development.