The objective of this project is to enhance current and future research productivity and to remain in compliance with Federal regulations for the care and use of research animals at the Center City campus of Drexel University College of Medicine. The New College Building (NCB) is the site of intensive, NIH supported research and training in pharmacology, physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, pathology, surgery, gastroenterology, neurology, pediatrics and biomedical engineering. The NCB animal facility is decentralized with rooms for animal housing and procedures on eight floors. Animals and caging must be transported through public corridors creating the potential for health and public relation problems. The entire 15th floor and most of the 14th floor is dedicated to animal housing and research, however, due to its current configuration with concrete dog runs, 65% of the space is unused. Additionally, this decentralization causes problems with maintaining standards for temperature and humidity due to HVAC units shared by research and clinical space.
The specific aims are to: 1. Centralize the animal housing to the 14th and 15th floors by renovating the existing animal facility into rodent housing and storage space. 2. Upgrade the HVAC unit serving the 15th floor NCB to allow for more precise temperature and humidity control. 3. Allow for investigators in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology to relocate additional animal research to the NCB by reconfiguring animal housing space. Together, these modifications will dramatically improve our ability to perform health-related studies using animals and will free space in the NCB for expanded research activities.
