A £16.9 million central research facility is being built at the University of Leicester to house all animal-based laboratory research, with completion scheduled by the end of 2009. The facility addresses a critical infrastructure gap: the university’s current animal research resources are scattered and outdated, limiting the scale and sophistication of studies in cell signalling, cardiovascular disease, and infection/immunity. Without a purpose-built, centralised facility, researchers cannot conduct the advanced, multi-modal experiments needed to understand how diseases progress from molecular changes to whole-organism effects. If successful, this facility will transform the university’s research capacity for at least two decades. It will provide dedicated space for transgenic animal work, a state-of-the-art in vivo imaging suite (including magnetic resonance, fluorescence, and ultrasound), and expanded containment facilities for infection studies at biosafety levels 2 and 3. Multi-user rodent phenotyping labs will enable auditory and behavioural testing. The Wellcome Trust is contributing £3.9 million, with the university providing the remaining £13 million and three key scientific management staff. This is primarily an infrastructure investment—it does not itself generate new discoveries, but it creates the physical conditions under which fundamental biological research can happen.
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We have planned the construction, equipping and commissioning by the end of 2009 of a ?16.9m state of the art Central Research Facility; this will provide a key resource supporting all animal-based laboratory research in the University. Approximately 3300m2 of new laboratory space will provide centralised holding and procedure laboratories while ~13% of the space has been allocated to specialised facilities; these will enable new work extending from DNA through to whole animal phenotyping at any appropriate stage. Our key specific objectives are: 1) to underpin the next 20 years of animal-based research in this institution by concerting our current resources into a purpose built facility with attendant advanced research laboratories; 2) to recognise the central role of transgenics by expanding the facilities and resources available in this area; 3) to establish a state of the art in vivo imaging facility providing Magnetic Resonance, Whole body fluorescence and Ultrasound Imaging modalities; 4) to expand our facilities for infection studies at biological containment level 2 and establish a facility enabling rodent studies at containment level 3; 5) to establish multi-user rodent phenotyping laboratories including facilities for auditory and behavioural testing. We request a ?3.9M contribution against a ?13m investment from the University of Leicester who will also provide three key staff positions delivering day to day scientific management of the transgenics, imaging and containment facilities. While broad support for animal based studies is implicit in this proposal we also demonstrate targeted support for cell signalling, cardiovascular and infection/immunity studies.
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