Colorado State University broke ground in December of 2007 on a $42 million veterinary science facility in Fort Collins. The 90,000-sf diagnostic medicine center will house specialty laboratories for zoonotic disease research. The facility is one of seven in the nation selected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.
BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, a developer of adult stem cell technologies, began constructing an animal research facility at its headquarters in Petach-Tikvah, Israel in late 2007. Housing laboratories for preclinical therapeutics research, the vivarium and cleanroom facility will be built to meet National Institutes of Health and National Research Council guidelines.
The University of Wisconsin, Madison completed construction on the $12.5-million Institute for Influenza Viral Research in November of 2007. Designed by Flad Architects, the 28,000-sf facility houses BSL-3, BSL-3E, BSL-3Ag, and ABSL-3 laboratories with redundant air handling systems, autoclaves, a back-up generator, and an effluent decontamination system. Located at University Research Park in Madison, the Institute will support research on avian influenza and other flu viruses and will house rodents, ferrets, poultry, and monkeys.
Charles River Laboratories opened a 450,000-sf preclinical research center in Reno, Calif., in fall of 2007. Sited in Truckee Meadows, the BSL-2 facility is among the five largest animal testing laboratories in the country and accommodates drug research on rodents, dogs, and monkeys. Charles River invested $107 million to renovate the facility, not including laboratory equipment. The first floor houses a large chemical laboratory and the 50,000-sf second floor houses animal research. The center employs 400 staff members with a projected 900 employees in a few years.
Dalhousie University, in partnership with Capital Health and the IWK Health Centre, is planning to construct the $42 million Life Sciences Research Institute (LSRI) in Halifax. Designed by Halifax-based WHW Architects, the 115,000-sf, five-story LSRI will house post-incubator research projects and laboratory space for tenants, two floors of labs for the Brain Repair Centre, and a CL2/APL2 Integrated Animal Care Facility (IACF) for non-severe biological agent research on the fifth floor.
Iowa State University dedicated the new Dairy Animal Science Education and Discovery Facility on Oct. 20, 2007. Sited three miles south of the main ISU campus, the facility is a fully functional dairy farm of 450 milking cows used for teaching, research, and education. Accommodating research by faculty in Animal Science, Veterinary Medicine, and Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, the facility is also utilized by researchers from the National Animal Disease Center in Ames.
Colorado State University celebrated the opening of its $30 million Regional Biocontainment Laboratory on October 2, 2007. Sited on the Foothills Campus in Fort Collins, the 38,000-sf aerosol challenge facility will house mice for infectious disease and potential bioterror agent research. The BSL-3 laboratory features a $600,000 mass spectrometer, autoclaves, seven-layer epoxy floors, and rigorous HEPA air filtration. The project was built by a joint venture of Heath Construction with Hensel Phelps Construction.
Colorado State University has selected Heath Construction to build the $6.75 million third phase of Colorado State University's Bioenvironmental Research Building. The 21,700-sf, three-story addition to the existing Bioenvironmental Research Building is scheduled for completion in late 2008. The expansion will house research programs on infectious diseases and an array of mechanical and technical systems.
The University of Florida College of Medicine will break ground in September 2008 on the 90,000-sf Veterinary Education and Clinical Research Center in Gainesville, Fla. A design firm for the $58-million project, which will include an expansion of the University’s small animal hospital, will be selected in fall of 2007. The new three-story animal hospital will triple the existing facility’s footprint. The first floor will house examination rooms, waiting areas, an ICU, imaging, and a pharmacy.
The University of Virginia is constructing the 85,000-sf Advanced Research and Technology (ART) building in Charlottesville. Sited in the Fontaine Research Park, the four story facility is comprised of three floors above grade and an underground basement. It will contain wet and dry lab space, a vivarium, two MRI rooms and one small animal MRI room, environmental rooms, office space, and conference areas. The 22-month project is slated for completion in March of 2008.
The House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing in early October of 2007 to evaluate the safety and security issues of biocontainment and infectious disease research facilities. Prompted in part by the June 15, 2007 power failure at the CDC’s new $214 million laboratory in Atlanta, the session will investigate recent releases and incidents at high containment sites.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology directorate is exploring possible sites for its proposed $500 million National Bio and Agro Defense Facility (NBAF). Locations include Flora, Miss.; Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.; Texas Research Park in San Antonio; Umstead Research Farm, N.C.; the University of Georgia in Athens; and Plum Island, N.Y., the location of the existing BSL-3 Animal Disease Center which the NBAF will replace.
Oakwood Research Facility, a breeder of pathogen-free rabbits for medical research, received approval in July of 2007 to construct a rabbit facility in Attica Township, Michigan. The planned facility will be comprised of three 8,000-sf pathogen-free barns. Oakwood Research provides rabbits to the Indiana-based lab animal distributor Harlan Sprague Dawley, whose clients include the University of Michigan Ann Arbor Medical School, Michigan State University, The Cleveland Clinic, and Duke University.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture dedicated its high containment large animal facility in Ames, Iowa in July of 2007. As the second component of a multi-phase, $460 million project, the state-of-the-art animal health center will accommodate research on a variety of endemic, zoonotic and foreign animal diseases. Housing BSL-3 laboratories, the facility was constructed in three and a half years and cost approximately $85 million. The new building contains more than 155,000 sf and will house cattle, bison, elk, deer, reindeer, sheep and hogs.
UC Davis completed construction of the 125,000-sf Veterinary Medicine III A building in summer of 2007. The $77 million facility houses classrooms and research space to enable consolidation of the School of Veterinary Medicine in a single location. The project began construction in March of 2002 and was publicly funded.
