Funds of $500,000 are requested by the University of South Carolina to improve the existing Animal Resource Facilities (ARF) in the basement of Building 4 of the School of Medicine campus. This would involve 1) the purchase and installation of an emergency power generator 2) replacement of an antiquated tunnel washer, and upgrade of the cage wash room to provide a """"""""clean"""""""" and """"""""dirty"""""""" area. The short-term goals of the project are 1) To provide quality housing for rodents especially immunocompromised, transgenic, knockout and knockin mice. 2) To enhance the environmental conditions as well as health and safety for the animal care and animal use personnel. 3) To enable the PHS-funded investigators to pursue cutting-edge research in the areas of Cardiovascular Sciences, Cancer Biology and Neurosciences. 4) To facilitate the recruitment of new faculty and trainees. 5) To help ARF maintain AAALAC accreditation and be compliant with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. These renovations would benefit 25 investigators who have attracted ~$10.75 million in annual direct costs. Furthermore, the university is undergoing major expansion and several new faculty have been recruited in the past few years as well as active searches are ongoing. In summary, this project would meet the long-term goals of providing outstanding ARF to pursue biomedical research that would lead to translational studies to meet the regional and national needs by development of tools for early diagnosis, improved prognosis as well as preventive and therapeutic approaches against disease. ? ? ?
