# Facility Management, Maintenance and Operation Core

> **NIH NIH UC7** · UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE HEALTH SCI CTR · 2024 · $882,711

## Abstract

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Regional Biocontainment
Laboratory (RBL) provides a vast array of services that support the discovery and development
of countermeasures for biodefense and emerging infectious agents with unmet medical needs.
Central to this mission is the support the RBL provides for basic and translational research that
require biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) or animal BSL-3 (ABSL-3) containment. The long-term goal for
the Facilities Management Maintenance and Operations Core (Facility core) is to provide the
appropriate management team, staff, engineering controls and equipment necessary to support
those research programs requiring ABSL-3 and BSL-3 containment without interruption and in
compliance with federal regulations. The Facilities core will integrate oversight for (1)
maintenance of the mechanical and vivarium infrastructure necessary for daily operation of the
BSL-3 and ABLS-3 labs, (2) annual certification, preventative maintenance and monitoring of
critical building systems (3) decontamination of equipment and materials leaving the facility, and
(4) maintenance of basic lab scientific and biosafety equipment needed by RBL users such as
Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPRs), freezers, CO2 incubators, etc. This will be achieved
through the following aims and goals. Aim 1. Maintenance and operation of the mechanical
infrastructure to support BSL-3 and ABLS3 labs including the replacement of critical components
of the mechanical infrastructure that are currently beyond their normal life expectancy and the
preventative maintenance contracts needed for periodic validation and certification of the labs of
the building systems. Aim 2. Maintenance of the vivarium infrastructure to support research in
ABSL-3 containment. This includes replacement of mouse caging systems that are at end-of-life
and annual preventative maintenance and certification processes. Aim 3. Maintenance and
certification of BSL-3 lab scientific and biosafety equipment used by researchers working in the
BS-3 and ABSl-3 containment. This includes replacement of biosafety cabinets that have reached
the end-of-life as well as basic scientific equipment that is heavily used by our researchers. The
outcomes will be to extend the operating lifespan for the RBL, protect RBL staff and users from
occupational exposures due to mechanical failures, prevent extended shutdown of the RBL due
to mechanical failures, and improve efficiency and research productivity by removing bottlenecks
and keeping the BSL-3 and ABSL-3 labs operating at full capacity.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10910180
- **Project number:** 5UC7AI180313-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE HEALTH SCI CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** ELIZABETH ANN FITZPATRICK
- **Activity code:** UC7 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $882,711
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-08-18 → 2028-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10910180

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10910180, Facility Management, Maintenance and Operation Core (5UC7AI180313-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10910180. Licensed CC0.

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