Equipment and Personnel Changes Improve Vivaria Operating Efficiency
Recent initiatives at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center (NJC) in Denver, Colo., are generating significant improvements in operating efficiency, especially in relation to water, energy, and labor—three major issues for vivaria operations. In the past year, the organization has been able to reduce water consumption by more than five million gallons per year, which will result in an estimated savings of more than $60,000 in 2007 due to incentives from the Denver Water Department. The savings will average $21,000 per year in the years following. Likewise, improved personnel management and scheduling initiatives have resulted in a 20 percent reduction in staff turnover in the past year.

Proactive Approach to Ergonomics and Safety Issues Changes Behaviors, Attitudes
The Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine (ULAM) at the University of Michigan reduced injuries, worker health, and lost time incidents by more than 24 percent since undertaking a comprehensive health and safety initiative in 2005. The University addressed problems by paying more attention to ergonomics and focusing attention on workplace safety.

Facilities are Part of First Phase of New $700-Million Research Facility
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's (MSKCC) new $100-million, multi-floor vivarium utilizes the latest in technology to provide leading-edge facilities for MSKCC's expanding research faculty. The vivarium space, which will total 60,095 nsf when completed, is part of a $700-million project to construct two-phase research facility totaling 692,000 gsf on MSKCC's urban campus.

Rederivation Offers Greater Control Over Mouse Reproduction
Several recently introduced initiatives are helping the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine (DLAM) at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) deal with two of the biggest challenges in operating animal research facilities: securing adequate space for housing and keeping out disease and pathogens. One multi-faceted approach includes the creation of an assisted reproductive technologies (ART) lab to accommodate rederivation, thus growing the mouse population through in-house embryo transfer rather than importing animals from outside sources and putting them through quarantine. The move toward a three-tier animal facility, cryopreservation for efficient space utilization, and a handheld-computer-based system for detecting and reporting health cases have also become part of the program in recent years.

With its potential to devastate research colonies by interfering with many immunological parameters, mouse parvovirus, or MPV, is a "nightmare" for animal facilities, according to Dr. Marcelo Couto, campus veterinarian and executive director of the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine (DLAM) at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). A major challenge is testing a mouse for parvovirus. The pathogen can pass undetected in a blood sample because it resides mainly in the lymph nodes of the gut.

Standard Financial Analysis and Productivity Data Help Align New Building Plans with Critical Goals
What determines how much a new project should cost? Given the ebb and flow of funding in the university landscape, one architect suggests that the conversation should focus less on the best building for the budget than on the best budget for the desired building outcome.

Ranks Severity and Probability of Each Hazard
When does a BSL-2 facility require BSL-3 safeguards? When the volume of biohazard surpasses research levels and enters production quantities. This fact might elude planners using a strict reading of BMBL and NIH regulations, but it comes to light with a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA), a detailed evaluation of everything that can go wrong in a facility, how bad the failure would be, and how likely it is to occur. It is the kind of analysis that should occur when there is little more than a building site and envelope, before planners even start sketching a floor plan.

Decision-makers Must Understand and Commit to Long-Term Expense
Universities aiming to build highly technical facilities to host research in areas involving the use of biological and infectious agents or nanomaterials need to make sure they know what they're getting into. Not only are these facilities extremely costly to build, but they also require a high level of ongoing funding if they are to function properly and safely. The operating and maintenance cost of these facilities can be six to nine times greater than for a typical administrative office facility.

Decreasing Energy and Water Consumption Increases Sustainability and Reduces Cost
Energy and water efficiency are the two most significant factors when it comes to improving the environmental sustainability of science facilities. Private and public research labs across the country account for approximately 560 trillion BTUs of energy per year--which equates to more than 14 million households, more than 100 million tons of CO2 emissions, and more than $8 billion in utility costs--according to architects at Omaha, Neb.-based HDR Architecture Inc. In an attempt to offset this impact, the U.S, Department of Energy (DOE) has mandated a 30 percent improvement in efficiency at its installations throughout the country beginning in 2007.