Animal Research Facilities 2025 Sessions

This presentation sets out the results from a recent test comparing a dry heat sterilizer compared to a steam sterilizer for the laboratory animal cages, IVC racks, enrichment, and a selection of additional vivarium equipment.  Robert Davis illustrates the data pertinent to today’s vivarium designers and operators, namely the relative cost and sustainability features. He provides use case studies detailing efficacy, load configuration, space and utility requirements, cycle parameters, and net cost calculations.

Organizations launching animal research facility construction or renovation initiatives will be well-equipped for success by incorporating the design and operating lessons and space metrics laid out in this session. Presenters illustrate the evolution in flexible design solutions in response to shifts in species, changes in research focus, and technology advances. They profile the latest trends in architecture and engineering planning and design metrics, and the efficiencies now achievable in new and renovated facilities. They distill findings and best practices on animal holding, animal care, laboratory configuration, and critical support spaces.

Strategic planning for long-term operations must increasingly factor in budget and staffing shortages, regulatory pressure, and rising expectations for sustainability and animal welfare. The transformative ability of smart technologies to improve facility design efficiency and streamlined operations cannot be overstated, but to maximize the results requires early holistic planning. This session provides case studies of projects integrating plans for automation, advanced equipment systems, and service partnerships into planning and design phases to reduce lifecycle costs and create safer, more efficient, and adaptable environments.

This session examines the latest technology innovations and facility design implications for ensuring high-quality, low-variability research while balancing cost, sustainability, and adaptability. Session leaders examine the plethora of factors to be considered, including HVAC systems, humidity across seasons, temperature control for sensitive studies or post-recovery, lighting conditions, variability in room layouts, and more. They illustrate the use of new equipment solutions to allow precise control of extrinsic variables at the cage level, the transformative potential in vivarium design, and the improvements in standardization and reproducibility across studies. 

The 17,000-cage vivarium being built for Brown University’s Danoff Life Sciences Laboratories represents a substantial change in operational thinking, and this session traces the evolution of the project from existing conditions to concept and planning, through construction and looking to the future. Presenters chart the transition from a census-based master plan to a flexible design supporting increased density and the incorporation of automation to reduce operating costs. They examine new criteria to drive design evolution without compromising core objectives of efficiency and flexibility. They illustrate the leveraging of a “Choosing by Advantage” strategy to ensure the best value for the University. 

Decisions made at the onset of vivarium construction or renovation initiatives will determine cost and performance numbers for many years to come, and this session equips participants with the data and decision-making criteria to impact long-term outcomes. Session leaders walk through thought processes that lead to future-flexible and sustainable vivaria design and infrastructure solutions capable of adapting to both immediate facility needs and evolving technologies. They examine the challenges, pitfalls, and benefits of these considerations in terms of human, animal, and global health, responsiveness to SOPs, and operational costs and research funding.

The reproducibility crisis and translational failures in preclinical research highlight the urgent need for more accurate, scalable, and unbiased methods of monitoring animal behavior. This session introduces participants to Animal Research 2.0 with an AI-powered home cage monitoring system addressing historical limitations by enabling continuous, noninvasive tracking of rodent behavior in their natural living environment. Michael Florea scopes out next-level achievements in pattern recognition and data accuracy through 24/7 monitoring, advanced computer vision, and machine learning algorithms. He provides deployment models and requirements, and demonstrates results: reduction in labor costs, improved animal welfare, and rich high-resolution behavioral datasets that improve experimental reproducibility and unlock the discovery of novel digital biomarkers.

To ensure long-term responsiveness in innovation, animal health, research efficacy, and attract and retain top talent well into the future, MD Anderson’s new world-class centralized vivarium is designed to be built in phases. This session examines decision-making criteria, contexts, and design and infrastructure solutions that will ensure operational efficiency and continuity across multiple constructive initiatives. Session leaders set out value-based planning strategies, the application of automation for current operations and future use, and the long-term in research efficacy and attracting and retaining top talent, all of which will serve as a benchmark for vivarium facilities of the future.

In today's evolving economic landscape, the ability to rapidly change vivarium space allocations, operational flow, and cost models will be paramount. Disposable IVC systems may be the right answer in times of uncertainty or as a long-term solution to deliver adaptability, scalability, and cost-effectiveness for research environments. Session leaders illustrate how and why organizations are leveraging no-washroom, disposable caging solutions to improve space utilization, reduce energy use and labor requirements, and more. They highlight the advantages in maintaining a competitive edge in a world where adaptability is key to progress and success. 

Universities worldwide have committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner -- a goal presenting a particular challenge to research-based institutions with massive, high-energy intensive laboratory spaces growing exponentially. Jim Neff and Quindi Guiseppe present a successful campus central energy plant decarbonization project to illustrate new solutions for this challenge including harnessing the sun and implementing multiple new technologies and tools to offset heating loads and eliminate gas from the central plant. They demonstrate a process of systems master planning, assessment, and maximization of ROI in terms of dollars and CO2, and reveal lessons learned.