The University of Cincinnati (UC) is a premier public research university committed to continued growth of its research enterprise. NCRR has recently awarded $8.4 million and UC has committed $3.2 million to renovate the oldest and most heavily used of our animal facilities (G20RR030832). Renovation will more than double capacity for that facility with the use of the MACS 160 Gentle Air Caging Systems (racks) for which the facility was designed. With our current census we are at capacity using less efficient racks, and can only budget for gradual replacement / expansion without the ability to accommodate the needs of the remodeled facility and new faculty hires. In short, we will soon have a brand new animal facility without the ability to expand into the new space. There is an urgent need, therefore, to obtain rodent racks that will allow us to begin to utilize the new facility, increase animal capacity, maximize flexibility in rodent housing, increase efficiencies for labor, energy, and water, improve operation safety and enhance indoor environmental air quality while improving the micro-environment of the rodents. Unless these unmet needs are addressed, UC will be unable to fully utilize the renovated facility, provide sustained barrier-level rodent housing, or guarantee disease-free animal models for continued grant-funded research, thereby jeopardizing our ability to recruit and retain outstanding researchers and meet the future needs of (primarily NIH-sponsored) grant-funded projects.
