Vital biomedical research and integrity of scientific data depend on excellent animal care. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Animal Care and Use Program is committed to the long-term goals of providing and maintaining consistently high quality, healthy animals according to accepted standards at reasonable cost while providing a safe and healthy workplace for personnel with minimal impact on the environment. The equipment requested, 20 exhaust ventilated caging systems (EVCS), 7 ventilated animal transfer stations (VATS) and 3 biological safety cabinets (BSCs) will assist in attaining these long term goals and the specific aims of this proposal. The equipment proposed in this application will benefit UAB Cancer Center members located in Wallace Tumor Institute who use mice (18 investigators, 7 departments, ~1700 cages of rodents currently housed in other buildings). It will also benefit 21 Cancer Center members who use the small animal imaging core facility. The requested equipment will contribute to the completion of 93 active ($18.5M) and 63 pending ($75.4M) projects. The requested equipment will be a part of the infrastructure needed to maintain and support the growth of a nationally and internationally recognized interdisciplinary research program.
