Canada’s new Centre for Pandemic Research brings a massive expansion of the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) mission and BSL-3Ag vaccine research infrastructure, requiring a multitude of new capabilities for responding to emerging pathogens and producing both animal and human vaccines under GMP conditions. Cam Ewart provides design and construction details for the facilities required to support the initiative, including large scale investments in research labs and holding for multiple species, exotic animals, insects, and NHPs, and partial conversion of BSL3-Ag space to BSL-4. He identifies challenges and solutions for mid-project scope changes.

In the race to expand into modern animal program space, leveraging legacy vivarium facility capabilities can still provide critical core functions, postpone capital spending, and maintain study continuity. Tamra Whittenberg and Mary Ann Cody examine the design and operating model for Northwestern University’s Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center vivarium including metrics and features to support species diversity, barrier/non-barrier, and ABLS2 space. They detail roadblocks and solutions for LED lighting and cagewash automation, and key considerations when linking to adjacent facilities. They also describe creative work policies and schedules employed to maintain operations and move projects forward during COVID-19 restrictions.

Massachusetts General Hospital continues to build on its pioneering efforts in raising the productive use of vivarium space through Lean process improvements. Laurie Ingram illustrates MGH’s latest facility renovations designed to capitalize on those efficiency models and raise the bar even higher. She details space configurations for increasing census capacity and program flexibility, and processes for identifying revenue-generating space conversion opportunities. She profiles initiatives including identifying and repurposing underutilized space into animal rooms, offices, conference rooms, and more. She charts the end-result metrics and demonstrates the capacity increase within the same footprint.

Rapidly expanding programs in neuroscience, genetics, infectious diseases, and immunology are demanding more capacity, more capability, more flexibility, and more efficiency from animal research facilities, a dynamic which is quickly obsoleting yesterday’s vivaria and operating models. Dejan Bratun details a vivarium gut renovation at Columbia University Medical Center delivering 12,000-sf of procedure rooms, germ-free area, BSL 1 and 2 holding rooms, dual autoclaves, cage and rack washers. He also examines performance, reliability, and efficiency rationales for a new, dedicated, HVAC system with 175 tonne chiller, 65,000 CFM new AHU and heat recovery unit.

Lean tools for improving the value and efficiency of vivarium operations have been widely adopted, but actual results vary – what makes the critical difference? In a presentation co-authored with Dr. Carolyn Doerning, Sal Tummala distinguishes process-oriented lean tools from lean culture, and how the CCHMC Division of Veterinary Services lean implementation sparked a culture of continuous improvement. He profiles the quantitative impacts on capacity, capability, quality, and reduced overtime and turnover, and the qualitative improvement in staff leadership, morale-building, transparency, and engagement. He illustrates how the three core pillars of “people, process, product” translate into change management plans and successful outcomes at CCHMC.

The hot new microbiome immunology research programs involve introducing dirty mice to SPF mice under controlled conditions – a process best accomplished with a dedicated facility to protect uninvolved colonies. Lynn Impelluso lays out University of Minnesota’s plans to transition their current BSL-3 dirty mouse core facility to a standalone facility, allowing for isolation of dirty mouse programs, allowing existing space to be used for COVID research, and accommodating program growth needs in the main facility. She details key features of the dirty mouse facility design, including strategies for operating efficiency, BLS-2+ containment, space use, housing, and technology.

AAALAC International is a voluntary accreditation organization for animal care and use programs, and there are currently over 1050 accredited units in over 50 countries worldwide.  The physical plant (vivarium) is one very important component of an animal care and use program, and understanding AAALAC expectations during planning, design and construction can facilitate the accreditation process for institutions.  Dr. Gary Borkowski will present an overview of how an institution applies for and achieves and maintains accreditation, with an emphasis on subjects germane to the physical plant components.  This will include a review of information in AAALAC’s primary standards and reference resources, as well as a review of common physical plant deficiencies seen during AAALAC site visits.

Here you’ll see how Australia’s Translational Research Institute eliminated paper logs and enabled remote work practices for its gnotobiotic facility by moving to a custom unified database, and what the resulting data has revealed about work practices, staffing models, facilities, and space utilization. Emily Duggan illustrates the scope and impact of the inefficient “off the shelf” and “multiple systems” approach to managing complex research labs and animal facilities, including possible data loss, inaccuracy, and unnecessary duplication. She sets out the value proposition for bespoke database development, and TRI’s results in terms of staff process efficiencies, improved work environment, better scheduling, and extrapolation of key metrics.

This end-of-day session is where key ideas, new developments, and findings that have been revealed over the course of the entire two-day conference (including sessions you may have missed) get clarified, expanded upon, and affirmed or debated. This is also the opportunity to get answers from industry leaders and the entire audience to specific questions on key and challenging issues.  

The Jackson Laboratory (JAX), a world leader in mammalian genetics research places a tremendous emphasis on facility design, construction, and operations, and uses a rigorous process to ensure uninterrupted facility operations. Drawing from experience operating multiple mouse production facilities, JAX has distilled critical design and construction details that yield robust facilities with minimal maintenance activity disruptions and unparalleled systems reliability. Session leaders deliver top ten (10) lessons learned during the construction of Jackson Laboratory’s recent conversion of an old Lowes warehouse to one of the world’s most advanced and automated animal production facility in Ellsworth, Maine.

Back by popular demand! This session is the fountainhead for the latest, best-in-class solutions and trends for rodent housing that will arm you with new tools and strategies for next-level operational and research outcome success. Session leaders demonstrate benefits and limitations of housing units and new automation strategies that improve animal model translation by elevating animal welfare. They detail accompanying critical infrastructure systems and designs and the requisite support for safe, secure, cost-effective, and high-quality operation. They review main areas of automation including research, holding room, housing units, cage wash and linkage logistics.

Research organizations facing new workforce availability, health and wellness, and cost pressures are taking a fresh look at automation to deliver the efficiency, flexibility, and safety that today’s science programs are demanding. This session surveys a range of automation solutions for laboratory animal housing and washing implemented by facilities teams from around the world, and where leading organizations are now heading. Session leaders deliver costs planning metrics, facility design strategies, and MEP infrastructure requirements for performing industry-specific repetitive tasks in a fast and reliable way, with a key benefit being more productive use of personnel. They relate sustainability targets to selection of current and future equipment, examine custom solutions for enhanced flexibility, and implications for IT infrastructure planning.

The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events is heightening the call to action for resiliency in research facilities by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine – and animal facilities are front and center.  Through several case studies, session leaders deliver a comprehensive strategy for resilience design of animal research facilities. They outline solutions that go beyond simply disaster readiness and response to anticipate the full impact of a disaster scale event on associated programs and supporting engineering systems. They illustrate processes for applying the federal government’s risk averse design standards including a summary of the NIH Design Requirements Manual’s resilience design considerations. 

Animal facilities are under pressure to increase operational- and cost-efficiency, and this session illustrates a successful strategy to deliver on these goals through a case study of Merck’s new Translational Medicine Center of Excellence. Session leaders detail the designs, features, and processes undertaken to improve tracking of capacity and census, reduce animal impact from inefficient transport to/from imaging and procedures, update outdated infrastructure, improve researcher and staff interaction and productivity, and improve equipment utilization. They demonstrate new designs that optimize facility process flows with LEAN while maintaining necessary separations, and examine unique advantages of modular planning, design, and construction processes for vivarium projects. 

Increasing demand for research capacity and throughput has collided with recruitment needs and strained budgets to create a perfect storm; it’s time to bring all the technology tools to bear to raise animal facility performance and meet the challenge. Paul Fuson provides a holistic overview of products and technologies entering the market just in time to deliver on today’s critical energy management, asset tracking and space utilization, user experience, and security demands. He examines how IoT is being employed in animal research facilities to unlock new data insights, raise operating efficiency, and enhance the relationship between the built environment and facility users.

What should owners budget for cost escalation in the post-pandemic economy? What are effective ways to procure projects in a post-pandemic market? Mounting pressure on construction costs will impact all research projects on the drawing boards and in the pipeline. Attend this session to see new pathways to better pricing and more accurate budget figures. The Vermeulens team delivers construction cost forecasts based on economic conditions, commodity prices, and cost data as the pandemic-induced recession comes to an end. They profile what organizations are doing to develop bid and procurement strategies that strategically minimize exposure to construction escalation.

Decontamination of traditional PPE, animal beddings, food stuffs, liquid and solid animal wastes, tissue and carcasses, and disposable materials used in research or drug development can present a myriad of challenges. In this session, Gary Schmidt details the available systems, infrastructure requirements, and implementation strategies to process various forms of waste materials including effluent systems, tissue digesters, and specialized autoclaves. He demonstrates applications of these systems, their limitations, and site requirements. He identifies safety features and staffing requirements for operations. 

Early-stage biotech and university research is experiencing explosive growth and all new expansion/colocation efforts must prioritize maximum facility flexibility and scalability. In this session, Michele Cunneen profiles a facility design process that distills needs and wants of researchers and deliver solutions that accommodate multiple research programs, rapidly changing research directions, and expanded capacity. She illustrates concept drawings and collaborative design strategies that help direct end-user conversations toward sharing of space and equipment. She identifies how to plan for multiple future-use scenarios including facility repurposing into non-animal space. 

As research programs restart, it’s an opportune time to consider whether the labor and space costs of in-house breeding of common mouse strains are still justifiable, or if those increasingly critical resources can be more productively used for more mission-critical programs. Joseph Combs scopes out the full costs of maintaining or expanding institutional breeding colonies, and the pros and cons of alternative solutions that promise reduced waste, more ethical use of animals following the 3Rs principles of reduction and refinement, adherence to SOPs, and the minimizing of genetic drift and microbiome alterations. He quantifies the potential impacts of coupling outsourced breeding and colony management with just-in-time breeding in terms of costs, labor, and space utilization.

This interactive session examines sustainability and carbon footprint reduction opportunities for vivarium construction and renovation projects; what represents current best practices as well as new targets and technologies to consider for your next project. Corinna Beale provides planning and performance references and leading benchmarks to equip and challenge this industry to catch up with the broader life science sector in reducing energy use and waste while still delivering on program goals. She scopes out time tables, identifies roadblocks, workarounds, and solutions, and draws out session participant experiences for creative ideas and lessons learned.