Sessions

This session surveys a myriad of recent animal research facility case studies for benchmarking your upcoming animal research initiatives. Kishore Warrier and Marcus Meyers demonstrate planning and design strategies for projects that incorporate LEED goals, resolve different ambient environments with seasonal outside air conditions from winter and wind to heat and humidity, and tackle pressurization requirements and challenges. They identify key MEP planning considerations and infrastructure components necessary to mitigate risk, and examine projects from design phase reviews to construction phase coordination and successful commissioning and turnover. They deliver lessons learned and identify new considerations for project teams.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has increased opportunities for laboratories to investigate emerging infectious diseases, and many institutions are looking for ways to add BSL3/ABSL3 space into existing buildings for conducting this research. Such renovations are not for the faint of heart. Mark Corey and Ross Ferries set out go/no-go criteria for candidate facilities, identify the space, security, and biosafety hurdles involved, and present a variety of approaches to overcoming common obstacles for in-design, under construction, and completed projects. They illustrate decisions on support equipment selection, logistics, lab services, filtration, and more.

The research community has been grappling with "reproducibility crisis" for years, and the recently released NIH/ACD Working Group on Enhancing Rigor, Transparency, and Translatability in Animal Research report recommends critical evaluation of the "extrinsic" environmental factors that can influence biological function in research animals. In this session, Cindy Buckmaster details a practicable process to collect and store extrinsic data (temperature, humidity, light levels, noise, and vibration) for review and evaluation. She demonstrates how his is a necessary launch point for improving the accuracy of research findings, and the tools, software, and processes necessary.

This session challenges the conventional practice of below-grade vivaria and presents new concepts and solutions to position them on the upper floors of research buildings. Session leaders examine what’s driving above-grade vivarium strategies in both leased and purpose-built facilities, what needs to change with regard to project conceptualization, and what’s required to resolve vibration, mechanical, and logistical challenges. They illustrate the benefits of elevated locations including security, preservation of high-value space for public functions, and enabling healthy workplace environments for staff. They call upon two recent projects to demonstrate features, advantages, and lesson learned from locating vivariums on high floors. 

Attend this session for a case study of the Animal, Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences Building (AVBS) at Pennsylvania State University where presenters delve into design details and features aimed at taking vivarium operations to the next level of efficiency. Here you’ll see how facility designs including a centralized cage wash system support growth and increased capacity, enabling researchers to conduct transdisciplinary research for agricultural studies. Session leaders illustrate the combined effects of flexibility features, centralized systems, loading dock placement, and a dedicated MEP saddlebag system. They identify best practices and lessons learned from design and construction of the facility.

Understanding the basic principles and calculations behind biological inactivation are valuable tools in designing and evaluating treatment strategies and systems. This discussion reviews the philosophy of thermal treatment and the underlying math as well as providing practical discussion in application. Participants will learn how to apply these principles to a broad range of applications. This session is intended for engineers, specifiers, biosafety personnel, regulators and others involved with developing and evaluating thermal treatment protocols.

Three big challenges facing animal research organizations are study reproducibility, animal and human welfare, and operational efficiency – and new vivarium automation technologies offer solutions at different scales that bear serious consideration. Session leaders demonstrate the impact of the latest automation offerings including digital rodent cages, robotics in the washing area, and AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) for logistics. They illustrate how automation improves staff availability and retention and creates a technologically advanced environment engaging and attractive to the next generation. They examine the effects of automation on animal welfare, operational efficiency, and scientific advancement.

Transformative changes are reshaping the world around us and impacting how life science facilities and critical environments must operate. Now is the time to embrace new challenges, and seize opportunities for reducing operating costs, creating long-term resilience, establishing safe and healthy environments, reducing carbon footprints, and more. Paul Fuson examines the top three megatrends creating research facility operational improvement opportunities, and how to adopt enabling technologies while maintaining continuity. He illustrates improvements to safety, animal and human health, and competitiveness by leveraging digitalization.

Many Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratories face operational challenges stemming from aging facilities which can foster biosafety risks and hamper testing efficacy and turnaround time. New planning and design solutions that optimize operations have emerged based on lessons learned from the last generation of facilities, and this session nails down what those evolutions are. Jim Chen illustrates criteria and best practices for resolving challenges in outdated veterinary diagnostics facilities, including sample receiving/processing and testing workflows, circulation strategies that improve biosecurity/biosafety, optimized animal handling and necropsy, and BSL3 containment lab programming.

When are disposable IVCs an appropriate caging solution versus maintaining a cage inventory and building and operating cagewash and sterilization equipment? Marco Breuer examines key drivers pointing to a disposable, recyclable solution, effective use of available space for research, facility and equipment life cycles, project timelines, cage change frequencies, and operating vs. capital cost models. He profiles disposable, recyclable solutions that deliver many organizational goals while providing flexibility. He outlines critical operational planning considerations, including biosecurity, sustainability, staffing costs, and human and animal welfare.