The Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) has supported AIDS-related research projects for more than 25 years. These projects are performed at the Western facility, where the vivarium is designed to house nonhuman primates at an ABSL-2 containment level with enhanced containment practices implemented for lentivirus research. The AIDS-related research program is expanding with the addition of new core staff, funding of new projects for existing core staff, and new collaborative efforts between core staff and external investigators. With a projected increase in animal numbers, a need to upgrade cage wash facilities, and a need to expand surgical capabilities for upcoming projects, the University of Washington has committed $5.6 million to expand the vivarium by approximately 2500 square feet at the WaNPRC Western facility, install a new cage-wash/autoclave facility and build a state-of-the-art surgical suite for the support of AIDS-related research. We are requesting additional funding to convert the current surgical area into animal housing and to build out additional area within the expanded vivarium space for animal holding. The proposed animal holding rooms will accommodate 80 Group four (10-15 kg) nonhuman primates, or more smaller animals. The rooms will be constructed in accordance with the recommendations of the eighth edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. The completion of the animal holding space will synergistically complement the institutionally-funded project to upgrade the cage-wash facilities and surgical suite, and will improve and increase our ability to conduct biomedical research, especially AIDS-related research.
Specific Aims The Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) at the University of Washington (UW) provides facilities and research resources to support a large number of AIDS-related research studies using nonhuman primates. These research projects are conducted at the vivarium located on Western Avenue (?Western?). The increase in number and complexity of AIDS-related studies, complexity, and animal housing regulations has created some major challenges to supporting the projects. Therefore, we have three major areas where infrastructure renovations and modernization are critical at this facility. The cage washer needs to be replaced and relocated. The cage washer on the second floor is antiquated with insufficient processing space and is located in a high traffic area. This cage-wash location has been cited by the UW Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and the cage washer will be moved and replaced for regulatory compliance. The second need for modernization is to upgrade the surgical suite so that all critical animal procedures can be performed on site instead of transporting animals to the main campus for major surgical procedures. The current surgical support area is too small to perform multiple surgical procedures concurrently and we cannot provide for the increased need for tissue sampling for AIDS-related research. Due to recent changes in requirements for the housing of nonhuman primates in biomedical research our capacity for holding animals on studies has decreased. The regulations and standards have required us to provide larger and more complex caging which reduces the number of cages that can be placed in holding rooms. Therefore, we do not have sufficient animal holding space to meet the increased number of AIDS-related studies. Fortunately, we have institutional commitment from the UW to address the first two projects to meet regulatory requirements and surgical support needs. The funded project will provide the entire major infrastructure for the expansion space and will convert personnel space to appropriate sized cage wash. Vivarium space will be expanded by approximately 3,378 SF of which grant funding would provide renovation for 1,419 SF of animal holding/procedure space. One pair of animal holding rooms (AHR) will be built within the newly created expansion space and one pair of AHR will be built in the existing vacated surgery space. Animal holding space will be a limiting factor to improve the throughput of research projects and we do not have sufficient funding in the project for mechanical, electrical and plumbing infrastructure to provide additional housing space. This CO6 grant proposal requests funding to expand our animal holding capacity. It would provide sufficient funding to convert the current surgical area being vacated and part of the newly created expansion area into 4 animal holding rooms which will provide space to house 82 additional animals for AIDSrelated research. Aim 1: To increase animal housing space to support AIDS-related animal research with construction of four animal holding rooms. Currently, we can only house 300-350 animals at the Western facility for AIDS-related research projects. Adding 4 animal holding rooms will allow us to house 82 additional cages nonhuman primates. The rooms would provide space for 41 Group 4 one-over-one nonhuman primate racks. The increase in housing capacity will allow us to increase our ability to conduct research studies by approximately 25%. Aim 2: To leverage our institutionally-funded construction project for the support of AIDS-related research by improving our operational efficiency and enhancing animal welfare. There is current institutional commitment for the construction of a new cage wash facility and expansion of the vivarium by renovation of existing office space into animal research support space. The construction of a new cage washer will improve our cage wash capacity and assure regulatory compliance. The renovation of the old cage wash area into a state-of-the-art surgical suite will improve our research support capabilities. However, while the cage washer and the improved surgical facility will enhance the quality of research support, it will not increase our number of AIDS-related projects that can be supported. To leverage this renovation project, and to be able to perform concurrent construction, thus not further delaying research programs. To leverage the current renovation project, we propose to construct 4 additional holding rooms and a procedure room that is contiguous with the new holding rooms. The additional holding rooms and procedure room will greatly enhance our operational efficiency. The procedure room will allow us to access and monitor study animals more closely and therefore improve the welfare of the animals and efficiency of the research personnel. The fixed equipment requested for this project also includes the expansion of the Alerton environmental monitoring system and cabinetry for the procedure room. The Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) has supported AIDS-related research projects for more than 25 years. These projects are performed at the Western facility, where the vivarium is designed to house nonhuman primates at an ABSL-2 containment level with enhanced containment practices implemented for lentivirus research. The AIDS-related research program is expanding with the addition of new core staff, funding of new projects for existing core staff, and new collaborative efforts between core staff and external investigators. With a projected increase in animal numbers, a need to upgrade cage wash facilities, and a need to expand surgical capabilities for upcoming projects, the University of Washington has committed $5.6 million to expand the vivarium by approximately 2500 square feet at the WaNPRC Western facility, install a new cage-wash/autoclave facility and build a state-of-the-art surgical suite for the support of AIDS-related research. We are requesting additional funding to convert the current surgical area into animal housing and to build out additional area within the expanded vivarium space for animal holding. The proposed animal holding rooms will accommodate 80 Group four (10-15 kg) nonhuman primates, or more smaller animals. The rooms will be constructed in accordance with the recommendations of the eighth edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. The completion of the animal holding space will synergistically complement the institutionally-funded project to upgrade the cage-wash facilities and surgical suite, and will improve and increase our ability to conduct biomedical research, especially AIDS-related research.
