Animal Research

Colorado State University is constructing the $34.6 million Johnson Family Equine Hospital on the South Campus in Fort Collins. Located in the Veterinary Health Complex on CSU’s South Campus, the 85,000-sf project will provide translational research and treatment facilities including sophisticated operating rooms, an equine sports medicine center, advanced imaging suites, a dedicated isolation unit, and rehabilitation and therapy areas.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will begin construction in early 2021 on the 160,000-sf High Containment Continuity Laboratory in Atlanta. Designed by a joint venture of Flad Architects and Page, the BSL-4 facility will support the CDC's mission to rapidly detect and mitigate public health hazards. Accommodating approximately 80 investigators, the state-of-the-art laboratory will be one of three centers in the world designed and certified to facilitate diagnostic research on specific, select viruses.

While many campuses remain closed to undergraduate students, at least through the summer, researchers are beginning a phased return to their labs, with new safety protocols that include face masks and social distancing; guidelines for space usage and maintenance; and staggered work schedules. Institutions are requiring that researchers continue to do as much work as possible remotely, including writing, analyzing data, and conferring with colleagues. In order for research to fully resume, however, faculty need access to their labs, but they first must be trained in the new protocols and agree to adhere to them; failure to do so will results in the loss of lab access.

Genomic Partnership Wales is planning to construct a research facility in Cardiff in the United Kingdom to accelerate the development of pharmaceutical therapies. Created by a consortium of government, academic, and medical partners, the project involves the redevelopment of an existing two-story building to provide leading-edge genetics labs, seminar rooms, treatment suites, offices, freezer rooms, and support. The facility will include CL2 biocontainment research suites to ensure compliance with the UK's HBN 15 regulations for pathology services.

Erlab, a leading provider of air filtration solutions, is presenting a webinar on the mitigation of chemical risks in the laboratory at 10:00 AM BST on May 29, 2020. The one-and-a-half hour session will explore strategies for treating chemical risks at the source to enhance occupant safety and promote operational efficiency.

Visit GoToWebinar to register.

The webinar is also being offered in Spanish, Polish, French, and Maghreb French on separate days:

Allentown, an industry leader in research animal housing solutions, is offering a webinar on May 20, 2020. "Benefits of Biocontainment" will address the global challenges facing the animal housing industry and the ways in which biocontainment protocols can help address some of these issues when employed in the Allentown BCU-2 IVC and Cage system.

The webinar will be aired in two sessions at 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM EDT. 

To register, visit Allentown, Inc.
 

Colorado State University broke ground in May of 2020 on the $60 million Vida building in Denver. The 114,000-sf facility represents the first phase of construction at CSU's $200 million Spur campus at the National Western Center. The 250-acre site is being redeveloped to create a vibrant hub for the exploration of global issues including human and animal health, water quality, and sustainable food systems. 

E4H Architecture presented a webinar on modular facilities for accelerating vaccine development on May 8, 2020. Now available as an on-demand recording, the exciting session is led by Jeff Schantz, Director of Health Sciences and Technology at E4H. Jeff reviews planning strategies for adapting multi-therapeutic cGMP/BSL-3 cleanroom modules for SARS-CoV-2 response and cell therapy development. Presentation topics include regulatory guidelines, HVAC requirements, design and flow considerations, and decontamination strategies.

Tecniplast is offering a webinar on the use of the DVC® System to optimize animal modelling in mouse vivaria. “Improving Animal Modelling with 24/7 Home Cage Monitoring in Bio-exclusion/Biocontainment Mouse Housing Systems” will detail how the DVC® technology applied to the ISO caging system can deliver improved data replicability, animal welfare, and research results. 

Price Industries is significantly increasing production of its air filtration systems in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Instantly creating a negative-pressure isolation room, the company's fan filter unit can draw airborne virus out through a biosafety filter for expulsion through the building's exhaust vent or directly to the outside. The units can dramatically reduce airborne virus in healthcare environments such as nursing stations and temporary hospitals, and can even be used in hotel rooms that have been repurposed as care facilities.

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) has assembled a task force to address the role of the built environment in reducing the impact of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory infections. Aiming to define the critical role that buildings, organizations, and communities play in infectious disease management, the work will take a broad approach in considering both new and recurring agents that can affect large populations.

The Australian government has awarded AUD$220 million in federal funding to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) for upgrades to its biocontainment research facilities in Geelong. Constructed 35 years ago, the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (formerly the Australian Animal Health Laboratory) is a secure campus with four laboratory structures offering BSL-4 research space.

Federal financial measures have been approved in the past few weeks to shore up the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, with direct monetary assistance and business loans totaling $5.5 trillion, and more support and flexibility for research universities and government contractors. The federal stimulus package—the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act—is intended to pump $2.2 trillion dollars into the economy, primarily in the healthcare and research sectors, and to provide emergency relief to institutions, businesses, and workers whose livelihoods have been impacted by the pandemic. The specifics of how it will be implemented are still evolving, and it is likely that additional stimulus bills will be considered in the coming months, including investments in infrastructure for the nation’s research enterprise.

VACUUBRAND is offering continuing education courses approved by the American Institute of Architects and Green Business Certification Inc. Providing engineers and designers with the skills to create sustainable, high-performance laboratories, each course is available as a general webinar, a private webinar, or as an on-demand learning experience. AIA members will receive one LU/HSW (Health-Safety-Welfare learning unit) for each one-hour course.

Georgia State University is planning to construct an $84 million research building in Atlanta for the study of global infectious diseases. Designed by HOK, the 84,100-sf biocontainment facility will provide BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs, a vivarium, collaborative open research areas, offices, and support space. A design-bid-build contractor is being sought for the project, which has an estimated construction cost of $66 million. The structure represents the third phase of development at the university's Science Park and is slated for completion in 2022.