This application requests funds to upgrade facilities and equipment so that we may extend our programs to monitor and improve the quality of animal care and health at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center. Research at this institution involving animals is extensive, and peer reviewed support for this work is about $15 million. Investigators are pursuing new and exciting research avenues such as gene therapy with non-human primate models, transgenic mice to study gene expression, and the functions and regulation of the immune system, all of which rely on a steady supply of healthy animals. From these and other animal studies have come new chemotherapeutic and anti-viral agents as well as the promise of therapies based on rDNA technology and the use of cytokines. Training programs for M.D.'s and Ph.D.'s at MSKCC, which are complementary to the research programs, are highly dependent on the quality and efficiency of the Research Animal Resources Center. In recognition of the direction and ultimate value of this research, MSKCC is constructing a new research building (the Rockfeller Research Laboratories), which will be completed in 1988. This research building will have 11 floors of research labs topped by the animal facility. As part of an overall plan to upgrade and consolidate research and animal facilities, existing space in the Kettering Laboratory is being renovated. The animal facilities scheduled for renovation are on the west end of the third floor of the Kettering Laboratory. Specifically, funds are requested to (1) purchase cage washing equipment and cages for the animal quarters on the 12th floor of the Rockefeller Research Laboratories which will house a rodent containment facility for research colonies (nude and congenic mice) and for immunocompromised animals, (2) renovate three existing animal rooms on the third floor of the Kettering Laboratory building to provide improved housing for dogs, and swine, (3) purchase demountable dog/swine cages and automatic watering stations for these renovated rooms, (4) purchase movable equipment for the animal operating and recovery rooms, which will be renovated, and (5) purchase primate cages to house monkeys in their renovated quarters. The benefits to be derived from the renovation and consolidation of our animal facilities under this proposal include improved containment, sanitation, efficiency, public safety, and security.
