Animal Facility Renovations of New College Building to Enhance Biomedical Researc

描述(由申请人提供)：该项目的目标是提高当前和未来的研究生产率，并继续遵守德雷克塞尔大学医学院中心城校区对研究动物的护理和使用方面的联邦法规。新学院大楼(NCB)是由NIH支持的药理学、生理学、生物化学、微生物学、病理学、外科、胃肠病学、神经学、儿科和生物医学工程方面的密集研究和培训场所。NCB的动物设施是分散的，在八层楼有动物收容所和程序的房间。动物和笼子必须通过公共走廊运输，这可能会造成健康和公共关系问题。整个15层和14层的大部分用于动物住所和研究，然而，由于其目前的混凝土狗跑道配置，65%的空间未被使用。此外，由于研究和临床空间共用暖通空调机组，这种权力下放导致在维持温度和湿度标准方面存在问题。具体目标是： 1.通过将现有的动物设施翻新为啮齿动物住房和储存空间，将动物住房集中到14楼和15楼。 2.升级为15层NCB服务的暖通空调机组，以实现更精确的温度和湿度控制。 3.允许微生物学和免疫学系的研究人员通过重新配置动物栖息地，将更多的动物研究转移到NCB。 总而言之，这些修改将极大地提高我们使用动物进行与健康相关的研究的能力，并将腾出NCB中的空间用于扩大研究活动。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this project is to enhance current and future research productivity and to remain in compliance with Federal regulations for the care and use of research animals at the Center City campus of Drexel University College of Medicine. The New College Building (NCB) is the site of intensive, NIH supported research and training in pharmacology, physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, pathology, surgery, gastroenterology, neurology, pediatrics and biomedical engineering. The NCB animal facility is decentralized with rooms for animal housing and procedures on eight floors. Animals and caging must be transported through public corridors creating the potential for health and public relation problems. The entire 15th floor and most of the 14th floor is dedicated to animal housing and research, however, due to its current configuration with concrete dog runs, 65% of the space is unused. Additionally, this decentralization causes problems with maintaining standards for temperature and humidity due to HVAC units shared by research and clinical space. The specific aims are to: 1. Centralize the animal housing to the 14th and 15th floors by renovating the existing animal facility into rodent housing and storage space. 2. Upgrade the HVAC unit serving the 15th floor NCB to allow for more precise temperature and humidity control. 3. Allow for investigators in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology to relocate additional animal research to the NCB by reconfiguring animal housing space. Together, these modifications will dramatically improve our ability to perform health-related studies using animals and will free space in the NCB for expanded research activities.