The new Centre for Disease Modeling (CDM) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver achieved that balance by focusing on design strategies that enable operating success, such as efficient cage processing, well-ordered facility flow, and unique interstitial access that allows research to continue uninterrupted during maintenance.

“Our main goal was to align our design requirements with our researchers’ operational requirements,” says Kymberley Sutton, vivarium manager for the University’s Life Science Centre. “This kept our focus on achieving a seamless integration of systems within the facility so our researchers can concentrate on their science rather than the building.”

The Life Science Centre

The CDM is one of four distinct entities housed within the University’s Life Sciences Centre, a 565,000-sf, eight-story facility that also includes teaching and research labs for the UBC School of Medicine, the Life Sciences Institute research facility, and the Centre for Blood Research.

The 110,000-sf CDM is located in the two basement levels of the Life Sciences Centre. It is devoted specifically to animal research and containment, including 5,000 sf of BSL-3 lab space, 8,000 sf of BSL-2 lab space, and 25,000 animal holding cages for mice and rats, including transgenic, breeding, and research zones.

Although the Life Sciences Centre opened in November 2004, construction of the CDM did not begin until mid-2005 due to its complexity. Commissioning of the CDM is expected to be complete in the spring of 2007, with animals set to move in at the same time beginning with sentinel mice. The facility’s BSL-2 labs and BSL-3 labs are scheduled for completion this summer. The CDM has begun its certification process with the Public Health Agency of Canada, which will be completed after commissioning of the BSL labs.

“Since animal research is constantly evolving, we intentionally kept the design of our animal rooms basic and simple so that the rooms can easily meet a variety of research needs,” says Sutton. “To accommodate researchers with specialized needs, we included separate imaging suites, surgical suites, necropsy areas, and a dedicated room for gamma cell irradiation.”

Animal holding rooms are located on both levels of the CDM. Above each level there is large interstitial space so that service and access to the automatic watering system and electrical and mechanical systems can be made without entering into the animal rooms themselves.

Facility Flow

“With the capacity to house up to 125,000 rodents, there is the potential that the CDM may need to conduct husbandry on 5,000 cages each day, which equates to 32 double-sided cage racks that need to be cleaned and changed daily,” says John Featherstone, senior laboratory consultant for Diamond and Schmitt, the lead architectural firm for the project. “To facilitate the movement of these large racks, we used eight-feet wide corridors throughout the facility.”

He adds that most animal research facilities typically have six-feet wide corridors yet wish they had the luxury of a building footprint big enough to accommodate eight-feet wide corridors.

“Because the Life Sciences Centre is so large and diverse there are four separate loading docks to help prevent cross-contamination between research areas and to protect medical privacy issues,” says Featherstone. “There is an enclosed dock that serves the medical school morgue, another dock dedicated to general shipping, a third used only for outgoing soiled materials and biohazard waste, and a fourth dock devoted specifically to the CDM’s animal facility.”

Featherstone explains that in addition to contamination issues, the separate CDM loading dock is necessary because of the sheer volume of animals being brought into the facility.

All animal shipments at the CDM are taken from the loading dock to the animal transfer station, where both incoming and outgoing animals are processed. Only incoming animal shipments go to the quarantine area. The corridor adjacent to the animal transfer station includes a dumbwaiter to move animal cages and materials between the two floors of the Centre for Disease Modeling.

“We felt that a dumbwaiter would provide the best method of transporting clean animals out of the very clean lower areas,” says Sutton. “Instead of adding another full-sized elevator, the dumbwaiter proved to be the most cost-effective, space-saving way to achieve a direct link that avoids potentially contaminated areas.”

A central cage processing area, located on the main level of the CDM, serves both floors. The cage processing area includes two sterilizers, a large tunnel washer, and two rack washers capable of washing two ventilated racks simultaneously. The cage processing area is connected via dedicated clean and soiled elevators to the lower basement level and has a direct link to the BSL-3 facility.

“Our BSL-3 labs will be grouped together in the center of the upper level of the CDM so it can be fully supported by the animal care facility,” says Sutton. “The space will also contain two outer changing rooms and two inner changing rooms with a bypass vestibule around the two showers; a highly specialized analytical lab for work in proteomics, and an imaging facility for live animal and tissue culture.”

To meet government requirements the BSL-3 area will also be equipped with a continuous effluent decontamination system to treat hazardous liquid waste from the BSL-3 labs.

In addition, three pass-through autoclaves will be used to decontaminate cages and equipment used within BSL-3 areas. Other elements of the BSL-3 facility’s waste processing system include a tissue digester for animal carcasses, and a fumigation chamber for disinfecting large-scale equipment.

Security and Access

“There are four separate zones within the CDM, and each zone is color-coded to indicate different areas of responsibility,” says Peggy Theodore, project manager for Diamond and Schmitt.  “The colors also help track room maintenance schedules and improve the efficiency of logistics such as animal transport and cage cleaning.”

She explains that doors within the zones are painted red, yellow, blue, or green with corresponding colors on the monitoring panels located outside of each door.

Each animal holding room has its own dedicated monitoring panel that indicates the status of the room’s lighting and environmental systems such as temperature and humidity readings. In addition to displaying the room’s environmental conditions, the monitoring panel also includes a keypad that serves as a touchpad entry control system. The BSL-3 labs will include a separate access keypad and a biometrics system for added security.

The central monitoring station is located on the upper level of the facility in the administration area, which also includes two offices for the CDM’s director and senior manager who run the facility. This level also includes a reception area, computer workstations available to technical staff, hoteling desk space, meeting rooms, file storage, a kitchen, and a lunchroom.

Lessons Learned

“While we were conscious of meeting all of the necessary security controls throughout the facility, we also did not want to interfere with its flow,” says Theodore. “For this reason, we added electronic sensors on corridor doors and push-buttons positioned 10 feet away from doors that allow people transporting large cage racks and carts to easily open doors.”

According to Sutton, redundancy was an essential element for this project since the cost of system failure could result in significant animal loss.

“The CDM has two large rack washers and one vacuum bedding dispenser to accommodate our high volume of animal work, but also to provide redundancy in case of equipment failure,” says Sutton. “We also have an emergency generator so that all of our HVAC systems are fully backed up.”

Sutton adds that although the autoclaves for the CDM were designed primarily to meet cleanliness protocols, she would have added an autoclave or fumigation chamber near the loading dock to sterilize incoming equipment.

“We would like this facility to give our researchers the ability to apply for all sorts of grants or research studies,” says Sutton. “After the facility is up and running, we will continue to evaluate its systems and decide if different equipment is needed.”

She adds that the CDM struggled with this issue from the very beginning of the project since the type of equipment initially specified reflected what was proposed in the initial grant.

“One of the major lessons we learned is that it is best to involve appropriate users very early in the process, ideally at the grant application programming stage if possible,” says Sutton. “Otherwise, if there is not enough money allotted in the equipment budget, it is an ongoing struggle to win back budget money and space in the building to get the efficiencies and the functionality that are actually needed.”

By Amy Cammell