Establishing a Bioexclusion Barrier in the Combs Cancer Research Building

The University of Kentucky requests $500,000 to be combined with a $441,449 university contribution to establish a bioexclusion barrier capability on the east campus biomedical complex by renovating a portion of the Combs Cancer Research Building (CCRB) animal facility. The CCRB animal facility is a 5,570 ft2 facility that is an integral portion of the ~34,000 ft2 contiguous east campus biomedical complex animal facility and contains the cage sanitation and sterilization support facilities for all rodents housed in the entire facility. The east campus biomedical complex animal facility is an older facility designed for conventional animal housing. The minimal sterilization capacity and lack of restricted entry barrier housing rooms with integral procedural rooms has severely limited our ability to prevent the exposure of rodents to endemic opportunistic pathogens including Pasteurella pneumotropica, Helicobacter spp. and Norovirus. The result has been morbidity and mortality in unique immunocompromised transgenic mouse strains which has negatively impacted the research efforts of a number of NIH-funded investigators. The opening of the NIH-funded Sanders-Brown Embryo Cryopreservation and Rederivation Core has provided the University with in-house rederivation capability for the first time, permitting the rederivation of unique transgenic rodent colonies to eliminate these opportunistic pathogens. While this facility can initially expand the colonies prior to return to the investigator, there is a lack of sufficient barrier housing and support facilities on the east campus biomedical complex to isolate these rederived "clean" colonies from conventional colonies and prevent re-infection. This project has three specific aims. The first aim is the expansion of the clean cage wash/cage prep area with redirection of cage flow from the tunnel washer to eliminate a burn hazard to personnel and permit the relocation of the remotely located bedding dispenser to improve efficiency. The installation of a dry-heat sterilizer will provide the capability to support the bioexclusion barrier. The second aim is the establishment of two bioexclusion barrier animal housing rooms with a dedicated ante/procedure room. The third aim is to reduce energy and maintenance demands, improve cage microenvironment, reduce odors, and eliminate noise and vibrations by replacing the outdated Class 100 Vertical Laminar Flow (VLF) ventilation systems with a system designed to optimally support individually ventilated cage (IVC) systems. The renovation will provide the infrastructure needed for anticipated future expansion of the barrier facility and improve the flow of caging through the entire facility, improving efficiency and minimizing the potential for cross-contamination. This renovation will be the initial step in a long-term University effort to eliminate and exclude opportunistic pathogens that result in animal disease, limit the interchange of unique strains among investigators, and confound research results at the east campus biomedical complex, the university's largest animal facility.