Latest Reports

Newly designed, individually ventilated cages (IVCs) can potentially reduce HVAC costs by up to 75 percent and improve living conditions for the mice inside. The bedding sits on a perforated false floor, which is suspended over the normal cage floor to create an air plenum. Air percolates up from the plenum, through the false floor and bedding, and out the top of the cage. This airflow maintains a low relative humidity in the cage and actively dries the bedding.

The Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute of Florida (VGTI), an offshoot of the VGTI at Oregon Health and Science University, is dedicated to developing vaccines and immunotherapies to combat diseases such as AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis, and diseases associated with emerging viral infections such as Dengue fever and pandemic influenza. The three-story, 101,000-sf facility contains 11,000 nsf of vivarium/containment space with integrated procedure and in-vivo imaging spaces, nine bioscience research lab groups, specialty support labs, offices, and conference space.

Lacking space for its health science programs but faced with a limited budget, the University of Georgia is repurposing a former Navy Supply Corps School as a new Health Sciences campus, salvaging a property slated for closure and creating a more modern, collaborative learning environment. Throughout the renovation process, the challenges have been managing end-user expectations, balancing practicality with functionality—including reusing some materials—and dealing with diverse properties in this compatible but not perfectly matched space.

An addition of 14,600 sf and renovation of 29,300 sf have transformed Connecticut College’s first campus building, New London Hall, built in 1914, into a modern science facility, housing the biology, botany, and computer science departments.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Medical Research Building IV provides a highly flexible environment for innovative research: Labs are arranged in 22-ft modules with alcoves for specialty uses such as fume hoods and tissue culture rooms. Ceiling-mounted service connections and mobile storage units allow easy reconfiguration of lab benches. The project was the first U.S. application of Venturi-Wedge induction, a highly efficient system to maintain the precise temperatures required in laboratories. This single measure saved approximately $2,400,000 in Phase 1 construction costs.