On October 29th, 2012 super-storm Sandy caused extensive damage to the mechanical, electrical, 'and plumbing systems of the main campus of the NYU Langone Medical Center requiring the temporary, closure of the campus. This affected the Tisch hospital and its associated outpatient areas and three basic science buildings. In addition, storm-related damage required the closure of two affiliated hospitals, the Bellevue and Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals, which housed a number of our faculty and staff and many of their basic and clinical research operations. Collectively the facility closures resulted i the displacement of over 400 faculty and staff who were relocated to other NYU facilities or facilities at neighboring institutions pending recovery efforts. The past 9 months have seen the reopening of the main campus healthcare facilities and 2 of the 3 basic science buildings, with the third in stages of phased reopening this summer. The Bellevue and VA hospitals have also reopened, except for a few remaining areas still in recovery. Two vivarium facilities were severely damaged. Many animals were relocated to satellite facilities, but despite heroic efforts that saved a number of rodents, many still perished. This application requests funds to restore animal resources lost due to super storm Sandy that existed at the time of the super storm and were part of funded or otherwise active research projects at the NYU School of Medicine. Since this application supports the research of multiple Principal Investigators, the approach to restoring these resources is dependent on the specific animal lines lost and the project-specific preparations of the animals for the research project they support. This includes obtaining animals, sperm, or embryos from suppliers and other collaborating research institutions, or use of surviving stock for the re-derivation of the animal lines needed for specific active research projects. Details on the approach to recovering animal lines and the associated active research projects are summarized in the Investigator-specific Research Plan sections of this application.
Animal models are crucial for understanding normal physiology and pathologic mechanisms of disease in humans, as well as for developing and testing potential therapies. This application supports the re-derivation of valuable animal models that supported research projects active at the time of super storm Sandy, to study a variety of physiologic mechanisms and diseases outlined in the projects included in this application.
