UIC Animal Facility Environmental Monitoring System

Project Summary The enclosed application seeks to enhance the animal housing facilities at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). UIC's animal care and use program consists of eight centrally managed animal facilities totaling approximately 135,000 sq. ft. of animal housing and support space. The facilities support the research efforts of

approximately 300 investigators and covers housing and husbandry of approximately 40,000 animals. The program is supported by a staff of ACLAM board certified veterinarians, post-doctoral fellows in laboratory animal medicine, certified veterinary technicians, and a strong animal care staff. Towards our efforts to modernize

university research facilities, we are seeking to add environmental monitoring to the Biological Resources Laboratory (the institution's centralized animal facility) as well as 7 other centrally managed animal facilities at UIC. Specifically, we will purchase and install a Rees Scientific environmental monitoring system in the UIC

animal facilities. The requested wired and wireless monitoring will provide temperature, humidity, and light monitoring. Real-time 24/7 monitoring of animal room temperatures requires a robust environmental monitoring system capable of not only identifying when temperatures fall out of an acceptable range but also capable of

notifying multiple response team members through a variety of communication methods, such as phone, text or email. Once in place and operational the Rees Scientific environmental monitoring system will monitor in real- time 24/7 common extrinsic factors known to affect animal research including temperature, humidity, and light. In

addition, the system will track pressure differentials in select bio and chemical hazard rooms. In all cases the system will notify animal care, research and facilities management staff when parameters fall outside the designated range for an animal species, research model and/or functional room use. In summary, this project

will address a fundamental need in improved animal husbandry, minimize variables and facilitate state of the art biomedical research.