This proposal requests funding to assist in upgrading of laboratory animal facilities at The Rockefeller University, with the goal of providing research scientists with pathogen free rodent colonies. In a previously funded 1987 facilities improvement grant from the NIH we upgraded equipment, investigator safety, sanitation, surgery, water and environment components of The Rockefeller University Laboratory Animal Research Center and Field Research Center. These improvements have helped us remain a regional center for training and excellence in laboratory animal science. Matching funds are now being requested for a modification in our basic rodent husbandry care system which will enable our scientists to maintain and work with mice and rats free of common pathogens. We propose, with the assistance of this grant, to expand a limited 1200 sq ft of room with rodent microisolator housing by 2800 sq ft of additional pathogen free experimental animals. our existing limited pathogen free rodent housing was established by Howard Hughes Institute and NIH funding in addition to supplemental Rockefeller University funding. This proposal will enable us to maintain virtually all rodents which originate as pathogen free strains or stocks as pathogen free experimental animals, thus greatly enhancing the biomedical research of this institution. Approximately $45,000,000 in federal research funding is utilized at this university. Nearly two thirds of the laboratories conducting this research require laboratory animals for their studies and utilize the facilities of the Laboratory Animal Research Center.
