The West Virginia University Robert C. Byrd Health Science Center is seeking to expand support of its biomedical research activity and infrastructure by constructing a new animal facility addition to the current vivarium. This proposal requests funding for the new construction of a 22,000 net sq. ft. Animal Facility Annex (AFA) for rodent housing. The AFA would resolve two major issues confronting the biomedical research programs at the WVU Health Sciences Center. First, our present facility is over 50 years old and virtually all of the original construction is intact. This facility was not designed or constructed to meet the demanding husbandry and sanitation requirements of a modern lab animal vivarium, and the performance of the physical plant and surfaces have deteriorated over time despite efforts to maintain it. Consequently, there is a pressing need for upgraded, modern animal housing. We have begun an urgent project to replace our cage wash facility and provide a limited number of new rodent holding rooms in renovated space. Although this improves cage wash performance and sanitation, it is only a temporary measure for the larger issue of animal housing. Secondly, we are embarking on an ambitious expansion of our biomedical research programs. We have substantial new and unassigned wet laboratory space, and the positions and funds to recruit a large number of new investigators. We expect a rapid expansion in research areas that depend heavily on the use of animals and consequently must develop the animal facility resources to meet these needs. Animal use by our current investigators has been growing at a substantial rate, and we cannot meet the additional animal facility demands resulting from the expected addition of about 30 new investigators using animals over the next 3-4 years with our existing facilities. Therefore, in order to meet the infrastructure demands of a larger number of biomedical researchers it is imperative that we build an animal facility to superior specifications of performance with adequate capacity to house our animal at least for the next 10 years. This proposal embodies the solution to these problems in a creative, efficient and cost-effective manner. The AFA is designed to connect directly to our new cage wash facility, creating an efficient flow of material, integration with the activities of the existing facilities, and at great economy. In addition to providing increased high quality capacity for housing rodents, the two-floor AFA is designed with the second floor functioning as a barrier unit with a transgenic animal core facility. The first floor is designed to function as a more conventional facility with a dedicated biocontainment core (ABSL-3/BSL-3). These units will greatly enhance the infrastructure support to our research activities, provide for better science and better housing conditions for our animals.
