Renovation for Safety & Long-Term Support of Rodent Research at Univ. Cincinnati

描述（由申请人提供）：辛辛那提大学医学科学大楼（MSB）动物设施建于35年前，主要用于容纳大型动物物种。MSB目前无法满足目前和未来利用屏障级和转基因啮齿动物进行实验和转化研究的需求。如果没有能力改善MSB的核心设施，UC将无法招募顶尖科学家，并提供一个支持性的创新环境，这将导致新的科学发现，更多的就业机会和经济增长。因此，迫切需要改造MSB动物设施，以满足当前和未来的啮齿动物研究需求。该项目的目标是优化和现代化MSB动物护理空间；建造更大、更高效的住房和手术室，提高动物体内的安全性，减少人类接触过敏原和人畜共患病病原体，消除动物笼子的建筑物间运输，以进行灭菌/高压灭菌，使其更加节能和节水。拟议的翻修将支持正在进行的外部资助赠款53,538,423美元和待决的66,823,919美元。这一要求的基本原理是，更新该设施将提高动物护理的质量，突出啮齿动物相关研究，减少设施用户/员工的过敏原暴露，并允许继续扩大研究规模，以满足辛辛那提大学研究人员现在和未来的需求。我们将通过追求以下具体目标来实现我们的目标：通过消除原有的过时的大型动物清洁/肮脏走廊系统的设施设计来增加动物空间，形成一个屏障式设施，扩大啮齿动物的住房，并为更多的屏障式住房/转基因动物创造额外的程序室，以满足UC研究人员未来的需求。改造将使可利用的动物空间从14,985平方英尺增加到25,573平方英尺，鼠笼容量从13,391个增加到23,380个，每种情况下都增加了约70%。2. 通过将行政/更衣室空间移至MSB动物园区外，优化设施员工的空间使用，减少人类接触动物过敏原和人畜共患疾病。人员和动物空间的分离将减少不必要的设施访问，提高安全性，并最大限度地减少接触人畜共患病原体/动物过敏原，同时促进更有效地利用动物舍。3. 通过购买两台节能/节水，地板装载的geinge GE 92222大型高压灭菌器来集中MSB高压灭菌，从而提高蒸汽灭菌的水和能源效率，从而通过高压灭菌更大的负载来提高效率，消除了将笼和设备运送到其他设施进行高压灭菌的工作人员，同时减少了更新，更高效的高压灭菌器的水和能源使用。预计将为MSB扩大70%的啮齿动物笼子，这将使辛辛那提大学受益，因为它将提高动物住房的效率，使其进入更大的房间，更容易清洁和监测动物保健，提高笼子和设备消毒的效率，以满足当前和未来的研究需求。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Medical Sciences Building (MSB) animal facility at the University of Cincinnati was constructed 35 years ago to house primarily large-animal species. MSB is currently unable to meet the present and future needs for bench and translational research utilizing barrier-level and transgenic rodents. Without the ability to improve the MSB core facility, UC would be handicapped in recruiting top scientists and providing a supportive, innovative environment that will lead to new scientific discoveries, more jobs, and economic growth. There is an urgent need, therefore, to remodel the MSB animal facility to meet current and future rodent-research requirements. The objective of this project is to optimize and contemporize MSB animal care space; producing larger, more efficient housing and procedure rooms, increasing vivarium security, reducing human exposure to allergens and zoonotic agents, and eliminating inter-building transport of animal cages for sterilization/autoclaving, making it more energy and water efficient. The proposed renovations would support $53,538,423 ongoing, extramurally funded grants and $66,823,919 that are pending. The rationale underlying this request is that updating this facility will increase the quality of animal care, the prominence of rodent-related research, decrease allergen exposure of users/employees of the facility, and allow continued expansion of research to meet present and future needs of researchers at the University of Cincinnati. We will attain our objective by pursuing the following specific aims: 1. Increase animal space by eliminating the original, outdated facility design of clean/dirty corridor systems for large-animal species to form a barrier-housing facility with expansion of rodent housing and creation of additional procedure rooms for an increased number of barrier-housed/transgenic animals that will meet the future needs of UC researchers. Renovation will in- crease utilizable animal space from 14,985 to 25,573 sq ft and mouse housing capacity from 13,391 to 23,380 cages, an approximate 70% expansion in each case. 2. Optimize space use by facility employees by relocating administrative/locker room space outside the MSB vivarium reducing human exposure to animal allergens and zoonotic diseases. Separation of the personnel and animal spaces will reduce unnecessary facility access, increase security, and minimize exposure to zoonotic agents/animal allergens while facilitating more efficient utilization of the vivarium. 3. Increase water and energy efficiency of steam sterilization by purchasing two energy/water-efficient, floor-loading Getinge GE 92222 large autoclaves to centralize MSB autoclaving, thus improving efficiency by autoclaving larger loads, eliminating staff transport of caging and equipment to other facilities for autoclaving while reducing water and energy use with newer, more efficient autoclaves. The 70% projected expansion of rodent cages for MSB will benefit the University of Cincinnati by increasing efficiency of animal housing into larger rooms that will be easier to clean and monitor animal health care, improving efficiency of cage and equipment sterilization to meet current and future research demands.