Improving PDC/MWRI Institutional Animal Resources

Magee-Women'S Res Inst And Foundation, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Pittsburgh Development Center (PDC) of the Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) studies vital biomedical issues with international implications. More specifically, the PDC utilizes the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatto) and the cynomolgus macaque (Macaca fasicularis} to actively investigate contemporary issues in biology. The aim of this grant proposal is to attain funding to renovate the MWRI's nhp facility at the Montefiore University Hospital (MUH) of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). For the short term, the proposed renovation of the MUM facility will provide the MWRI/PDC with a fully functional nhp vivarium as the Center awaits the construction of their new two-story vivarium scheduled to be completed in 2006. The planned upgrades will allow the PDC to house their adult, adolescent, and infant nhp colony in the same facility and will refurbish the necessary support components to enable the vivarium to meet the increasing nhp research needs of the PDC. For the long term, the renovations described here will provide a facility separate from the new vivarium, which can be utilized to house the PDC's entire transgenic nhp program.