Renovation of Animal Care Facility

Subsequent to a successful grant proposal to the NIH, this project involved assisting University of Kansas plan for the Transgenic and Biobehavioral Measurement Animal Facility.

To accommodate the facility, a 5,500 sq ft existing animal care area was renovated into a Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) Barrier Facility to allow the creation of a Transgenic mouse colony with mouse husbandry, quarantine and support spaces. The renovated facility also contains pathology, microinjection, genotyping, animal holding, biobehavioral and cell cultivation spaces.

The facility has both barrier and non-barrier areas containing holding rooms. Using double sided ventilated racks the holding rooms have a total capacity of 2166 cages. A dedicated animal elevator allows access to the cage wash facility on the lower floor, and a pass through sterilizer is included in the barrier facility.

Within the confines of an existing building layout, considerable care was taken to create proper work flows and appropriate movements of the rodent population. The existing animal facility in the floor below and laboratories above needed to remain operational during construction, requiring careful consideration in both design and construction phases.