The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) is seeking funds to establish a new Translational Research Animal Facility (TRAF). The research enterprise at OUHSC has grown over 15% in the last 5 years. The TRAF will serve a critical resource support role to continue translational research growth for established NIH-funded investigators and for junior faculty supported by NIGMS- funded Institutional Development Awards (IDeA). The TRAF will provide modern animal housing space, research space, and non-invasive imaging capability supporting the OUHSC?s Research Strategic Plan?s four key thematic areas of research: cancer, diabetes, geroscience, and infectious diseases. The overarching goal is advancement of translational research at OUHSC by: 1) Repurposing a purpose-built facility into new research resources and animal housing facility; 2) Consolidation of infrastructure support for covered-species into a single location; 3) Providing space for a new 4.7 Tesla research MRI for imaging small and larger animals and consolidation of other imaging modalities into a single site; and 4) Promoting translational research throughout the OUHSC for NIH-funded investigators, while focusing on partnerships with IDeA-funded grants by providing junior researchers the opportunity and expertise to utilize appropriate translational animal models in their research.
