Increasing Investigator Rodent Housing Capacity through the Purchase of Ventilate

描述(由申请人提供)：科罗拉多大学丹佛分校(UC Denver)的安舒茨医学院(AMC)是美国最先进和最新的生物医学研究中心之一，也是芝加哥、德克萨斯州和西海岸之间最大的生物医学研究中心。加州大学丹佛分校的动物项目在促进基础研究和翻译研究方面发挥着重要作用。大学研究首席研究员一直在努力并成功地获得资金，以支持新校园内不断扩大的研究企业。这导致2010财政年度的资金数额增加到4.12亿美元，比2007年的水平增加了16%，或每年大约4%。在一个研究预算缩水和资金竞争激烈的时代，这是一项重大成就。自2004年1月AMC新的间隔室设施投入使用以来，平均每天的人口普查增加了近55%。随着R2间隔室在2008年秋季的增加，该大学计划扩大面积，以适应未来几年大学日益增长的研究需求，然而，即使对动物项目进行了大量投资，完成R2间隔室项目的可用资金也是有限的。由于项目预算削减，确保R2间隔室最大住房容量所需的许多机架、笼子和用品都没有在最初的项目预算中购买。取而代之的是，随着R2设施的人口普查数字的增长，决定购买这种设备。不幸的是，科罗拉多州的预算状况在过去两年里显著恶化，导致对高等教育以及最终对科罗拉多大学的大幅削减。由于我们的主要研究人员在为大学的研究吸引资金方面越来越成功，以及高水平的成功招聘工作，动物普查的增长预计只会继续以较高的速度增长。这一增长将继续导致对我们动物计划有限资源的需求增加。本次应用重点采购了32个单面高密度通风笼架，并为R2隔膜周转笼架。该设备将为另外2,240个笼子提供额外的容纳能力，或R2间隔室的容纳能力增加约20%，有助于适应基于历史增长预期的每年至少5%的增长率。这将对在R2间隔室饲养老鼠的首席研究人员产生重大的积极影响，使他们能够在不必限制其研究努力的情况下保持对拨款的竞争力。本申请中要求的高密度通风笼架是在原始建筑计划中设计的，将硬管道连接到已就位的现有房间级鼓风机，并平衡到房间。通风的笼架还将安装在现有的自动滴水器上。因此，在本申请中不需要为容纳这些高密度通风笼架而进行翻新。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Anschutz Medical Campus (AMC) at University of Colorado Denver (UC Denver) is one of the foremost and newest biomedical research centers in the country and is the largest center for biomedical research between Chicago, Texas, and the West Coast. The animal program at the UC Denver plays an important role in facilitating basic and translational research. The Universities research principal investigators have been diligent and successful in obtaining funding to support an ever expanding research enterprise on the new campus. This has resulted in an increase in the amount of funding to $412 million in Fiscal Year 2010, which represents a 16% increase over 2007 levels, or approximately 4% per year. This is a significant accomplishment in an era of shrinking research budgets and highly competitive funding. Since the new vivarium facilities opened at the AMC in January of 2004, the average daily census has increased by almost 55%. With the addition of the R2 vivarium in the fall of 2008, the University has planned for square footage to accommodate the growing research need at the University for the next several years, however, even with the significant investment into the animal program, there was a limit to the amount of funds available to complete the R2 vivarium project. As a result of project budget cutbacks, many of the racks, caging and supplies required to ensure maximum housing capacity in the R2 vivarium were not purchased on the initial project budget. Instead, a decision was made to purchase this equipment as the census numbers in the R2 facility grew. Unfortunately, the budget situation in the State of Colorado has significantly worsened over the past two years resulting in major cutbacks to Higher Education and ultimately the University of Colorado. Due to the increasing success of our principal investigators in attracting funding for research at the University, as well as high level successful recruitment efforts, the growth in the census of animals is only expected to continue to increase at a high rate. This growth will continue to cause an increased demand on the limited resources of our animal program. This application focuses on the purchase of 32 single-sided high density ventilated cage racks and turn around caging for the R2 vivarium. This equipment will provide additional housing capacity for 2,240 more cages, or an approximately 20% increase in housing capacity at the R2 vivarium helping to accommodate a growth rate of at least 5 % per year that is anticipated based on historical growth. This will have a significant positive impact for the Principal Investigators that house their mice in the R2 vivarium, allowing them to remain competitive for grants without having to limit their research effort. The high density ventilated cage racks requested in this application were designed for in the original building plans and will be hard-ducted to existing room level blowers already in place and balanced to the room. The ventilated cage racks will also be attached to existing automatic watering drops. Therefore, no renovations are requested in this application to accommodate these high density ventilated cage racks.