? Stanford School of Medicine has developed a 20-year plan for research and facility development that includes expansion of existing programs and new Institutes for Stem Cell/Cancer Biology, Brain Research, Cardiovascular Medicine, and Immunology, Transplantation and Infection. As part of the planning we evaluated existing animal facilities and populations and identified the projected animal facilities to support this expansion, i.e., making the highest and best use of existing facilities and improving the quality of existing animal facilities. We found that mouse and aquatic/amphibious populations were increasing rapidly, but space constraints were affecting research and would eventually diminish the quality of animal husbandry. Mice, fish and frogs are major beneficiaries of the identification of genes and mutations linked to human diseases, because they are easily and inexpensively manipulated, and many of their genomes are now being sequenced. Aquatic/amphibious species, are rapidly becoming the species of choice for many sophisticated studies of gene interactions, cell signaling, and protein processing in molecular and developmental biology, the neurosciences and pharmacology. This proposal addresses three areas needed to support this expansion of biomedical research at Stanford University School of Medicine: 1) alleviating a shortage of appropriate facilities to accommodate the specific needs of sticklebacks, zebrafish, and frogs for controlled water quality, temperature, and light; 2) consolidating these facilities into an area to facilitate collaboration and husbandry support; 3) expansion of the rodent holding areas by removing fish and frogs from mouse facilities to facilities designed for their special needs. ? ?
