? Matching funds are requested to renovate 22,500 GSFof floor space on the Howard Hall sixth floor to expand and improve the centralized laboratory animal resources at the School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore. This new state-of-the-art animal resource will feature a component that is currently lacking. This component is a fully functional Animal Biosafety Level 3 containment facility dedicated to supporting the School of Medicine's internationally recognized programs of extraordinary national importance including programs in both emerging pathogens, bioterrorism and biodefense. This includes NIH-supported studies by the Division of Infectious Diseases, the Department of Epidemiology, the Center for Vaccine Development, the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and the Department of Medicine's Division of Geographic Medicine, as well as the new Emerging Pathogens Research Center. ? ? The objectives of this project are to augment, enhance, and modernize the existing laboratory animal resources and to provide appropriate facilities to meet the conventional and specialized research needs of the faculty. ? ? Specific aims are: to address the pressing need of additional animal and support space, and to keep pace with an expanding animal census along with increased PHS- and non-PHS funding involving the use of laboratory animals to provide the highly specialized biohazard containment resources and support space required to meet active and pending research projects involving biohazard agents in animals and to provide centralized resources for housing and characterizing genetically altered and immuno-compromised rodents, as well as conventional space for non-human primate quarantine and other species. ? ?
