? This animal resource improvement project proposes to purchase ventilated mouse cages for two National Center for Research Resources (NCRR)-funded construction projects: the Genetically Modified Rodent Facility (GMRF) and the Procedural and Behavioral Housing Suites (PBHS). The GMRF has received NCRR approval for both the schematic and development design phases, has submitted design Phase III construction documents, and is scheduled to begin construction on July 1, 2002 (completion November 2002). The PBHS project received a notice of intent to award and, pending funding and design review, should begin construction by July 2003 (completion March 2004). The short-term goal of this project is to address an immediate and serious shortfall in mouse housing for ongoing biomedical research by UCI faculty. In particular, the use of genetically modified mice by UCI researchers has increased by an average of 28 percent per year during the past six years. The GMRF is designed to accommodate 3,150 ventilated mouse cage and; the PBHS 1,926 mouse cages. The long-term goal of the centrally administered University Laboratory Animal Resources (ULAR) is to develop animal housing at a pace that matches intensive laboratory construction and faculty recruitment; the campus will invest $5 to $6 million in caging alone over the next five years. Connected to the improved animal resource are two 50,000 sq. ft. laboratory buildings, Sprague and Hewitt Hall, scheduled to open in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Based on current usage, approximately half of the requested caging capacity will be filled immediately, with the remainder fully utilized by rapid projected growth in two years. The 1,926 cages for the PBHS will be purchased and installed to coordinate with the completion of the PBHS. Ventilated cage racks were integrated into the design proposals for both GMRF and PBHS in order to increase housing density, leverage valuable barrier space, maximize integrated behavior and procedure research, and help protect sensitive and valuable rodent stocks. ? ?
