Support is requested to build out the 29,000 sq. ft. of uninhabitable shell space on the ground level of the new Research Building of the Moffitt Tower Project to establish a 27,683 sq. ft. Mouse Barrier Facility. Capacities of the four existing animal facilities of the centrally administered, AAALAC-accredited program in Tampa Bay, Florida have been exceeded, and all lack a secure microbiological barrier, placing studies at risk of being invalidated due to infections. The proposed facility will correct deficiencies in animal space, and establish space for functional genomic services in a setting of stringent microbiological security. It is ideally located near the greatest focus of federally-funded research involving mice, and adjacent to the area's largest concentration of research laboratory space. It will establish the following: 1) 1,956 sq. ft. of quarantine space for the unprecedented health evaluation of all mice regardless of source; 2) 6,231 sq. ft. of additional mouse housing space; 3) 2,650 sq. ft. of procedural laboratories; 4) 4,671 sq. ft. of washing and sterilizing space; 5) a dedicated laboratory for the Mouse Models Core; 6) a mouse necropsy laboratory for the Veterinary Pathology Core; and 7) a laboratory for the In Vivo Mouse Imaging Core. A 26,341 sq. ft. interstitial deck will be constructed above the facility, which will permit service access without entering the facility proper. Central Energy Plant equipment needed to meet incremental capacities demanded by the facility will be added. The net benefit of this construction project will accrue to nationally recognized life science research at eight neighboring institutions in the Tampa Bay area. Matching funds to complete the project are provided by two of those institutions.
