The 14-story Heart Institute, completed in 2020 at the University of South Florida (USF), is the culmination of years of planning with an emphasis on integrating best practices from previous construction and renovation projects. The result is a “facilitative environment that provides for collaboration between researchers and research disciplines,” says Robert W. Engelman, associate vice president of research and innovation and professor of pediatrics, pathology, and cell biology at USF.

The need for more space to accommodate a daily backlog of unwashed cages sparked a $40 million gut renovation of the two-building animal research facility on the campus of the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) in Bethesda, Md. When the conjoined structures reopen this fall, they will be fully equipped with up-to-date features that facilitate animal care compliance, promote employee satisfaction, and offer uber-flexibility.

The Sixth Edition of the Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) manual emphasizes the importance of risk assessment and management, communication among all stakeholders, comprehensive procedures to report accidents and exposures, and a new focus on biocontainment of pathogens affecting agricultural animals. First published in 1984, the BMBL still serves as the cornerstone of biosafety practices for the safe conduct of research throughout the world.