Myers: The award to the Temple University School of Medicine will renovate and significantly improve the animal care facility for pathogen-free mice needed in Developmental Biology research activities. The 30-year old, 5,000 square foot conventional animal facility will be reconfigured and upgraded into a state-of-the-art barrier facility and will support a gene transfer and targeting center for research and research training to support embryonic stem cell work and transgenic mice. Currently, inadequate configuration which defeats the clean/dirty corridor system, obsolete instrumentation which affects environmental monitoring, and corrosion of metallic surfaces impede good animal care, good science, and the validation of research results. The modernized facility will provide research service, research training, and an AAALAC-accredited animal resource for transgenic, breeding colonies of mice with compromised immune systems and for specialized research equipment to conduct studies. The graduate research training program, which has grown dramatically over the past several years, will be centered in this facility, and in excess of ten faculty researchers will benefit from this renovation effort.
