96-09-26 Primate Research Center Dedicated

NEW PRIMATE RESEARCH FACILITY DEDICATED AT OHIO STATE

     COLUMBUS -- Researchers from around the state gathered 
Thursday (9/26) to dedicate a new state-of-the-art Primate 
Research Center at The Ohio State  University that will be used 
primarily to study AIDS and cancer.  The new facility will offer 
capabilities unavailable elsewhere in the state.

     Conceived by a consortia of scientists from Ohio 
universities and medical centers and backed by the Ohio Board of 
Regents, the new $2.53 million facility is the missing element 
Ohio medical researchers need to continue their work against 
these diseases.

     The new facility is capable of housing up to 180 primates at 
one time and is located at the university's Laboratory Animal 
Center, 6089 Godown Road.  The new building is designed so that 
researchers can safely study animals infected with highly 
infectious diseases.

     Researchers from Ohio State, the University of Cincinnati, 
Wright State University, Childrens Hospital Research Foundation-
Columbus, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Ohio State's 
Comprehensive Cancer Center and other scientists in the State of 
Ohio will be able to collaborate in the new facility.

     "Researchers in this state need to have access to a 
facility of this kind if they are going to make progress in 
understanding diseases such as AIDS and cancer," said Edward F. 
Hayes, vice president for research at Ohio State.

     "Only by better understanding the complex processes of 
living creatures can we devise new strategies to cure disease and 
promote better health in general.  The basic research to be 
conducted in this facility will be the foundation for human 
clinical research trials in the future."

     The Primate Research Center contains six large animal 
holding rooms capable of housing 24 monkeys each and a Biosafety 
Level 3 animal room capable of housing 36 monkeys.  It also has 
locker rooms for male and female researchers, treatment rooms, a 
surgical suite and recovery room, food storage and preparation 
areas, and cage cleaning and sterilization facilities.

     The Center is designed to provide scientists with the latest 
safeguards when working with AIDS and cancer research.  All 
research areas in the building are designated as Biosafety Level 
2.  In addition, one laboratory and an adjoining animal holding 
room are designated as Biosafety Level 3.

     Biosafety levels range from Level 1 to Level 4 with the 
latter being the most intensive.  Biosafety Level 4 facilities 
are required to study pathogens such as Ebola virus.  No work of 
that kind will be performed at the Ohio State facility.

     The lack of a facility with these types of safeguards has 
previously prevented researchers at Ohio universities from 
accelerating their AIDS and cancer research programs.   Under 
Biosafety Level 2  conditions, researchers will be able to study 
AIDS and similar diseases in animals. Under Biosafety Level 3 
conditions, researchers will be able to investigate how diseases 
such as tuberculosis and hepatitis affect AIDS and cancer 
patients and work towards developing cures for these diseases.

     By banding together for this statewide center, scientists 
will now be able to continue and expand that work.

                             #

Contact:  William Yonushonis, (614) 292-0272;
          Yonushonis.1@osu.edu.


[Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
               
Thu, 26 Sep 1996 10:32:19 -0400]
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