? Over the last four years, CHLARI has experienced substantial growth at multiple levels, including intramural and extramural funding, research faculty recruitment and research space. This expansion is occurring within the context of a ten-year strategic plan established in 1998. In the context of this substantial growth, it is the desire of the CHLARI to bring its ACF to a state-of-the-art status. This will be achieved by the construction of a new 9,400 sq. ft. to be located on an entire floor of a new research building currently under construction, which will be completed in the spring of 2003. This new ACF will include a new pass-through cage washer, a tunnel washer and bulk autoclave, a 1,200 sq. ft. dedicated small animal imaging core facility equipped with micro computer tomography (CT), micro-magnetic resonance scanner, and micro positron emitted tomography (PET) scanner, 14 rooms for small rodents and two Biosafety Level 3 (BSL3) rooms, with a total capacity for more than 15,500 mice. The overall goal of this application is to insure that as CHLARI undergoes such expansion of its research programs, its ACF is simultaneously upgraded to the highest standards in full compliance with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal Welfare Act and PHS policies pertaining to animal facilities, and to increase its housing capacity to meet the demand of an expanding research faculty.
The specific aim of this application is to upgrade animal housing in the new ACF by purchasing six high efficiency particulate air (HEPA)-filtered ventilated rodent housing systems and accessories, to bring the housing capacity to 7,000 mice within the next two-three years. It is anticipated that the purchase of this equipment with complementary and similar equipment purchased by the Institution, will not only increase the capacity of the facility to house rodents to match the needs of our expanding research activities but will also provide a better pathogen-free and controlled environment for these animals. ? ?
