Alterations and Renovations Project Summary SUBR Vivarium: The Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge (SUBR) has the distinction of being seventh in the country for serving minority students and producing BS graduates with PhD degree. In the last five years, SUBR has successfully produced around 1000 BS-degree science graduates (STEM related). However, from the students who enroll in graduate programs, about 12% complete their PhDs. Enhancing both retention and graduation can be strengthened by improving the research infrastructure at SUBR. The Southern University Health Research Center (HRC) was established in 1969 through a matching grant from the Health Research Facilities of the Division of Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It consists of 35 rooms, of these 7 rooms have been dedicated for the vivarium in the HRC. The vivarium facility has not been used in over 10 years, necessitating revival, and the current proposal seeks to reestablish the vivarium facility in the existing space. We are confident that once the animal house in HRC becomes operational again, the SUBR faculty from various departments will be able to engage in research activities and work towards obtaining research support and further enhance biomedical research portfolio. Concomitantly, the animal experimentations at HRC will help in attracting more students and provide greater diversity of faculty, staff and students. The planned renovation will be executed according to the following aims: Specific Aim 1: To upgrade the infrastructure of vivarium facility at SUBR. Specific Aim 2: To develop/enhance a pipeline of investigators that utilize the proposed animal facility at Southern University. GSU Carver Core Laboratory: The overall goal of this project is to modernize the Biological Research Core Laboratory (Room185) in the Carver Hall Science Building Annex through substantial renovation. This space was originally built as a teaching laboratory in 1970 and has never been renovated. The classroom-style laboratory floorplan and casework severely restrict floor space for freestanding equipment and bench space for benchtop instruments. This core laboratory was first established in 2015 to support research through grant funding received from the Louisiana Board of Regents Support Fund. The equipment housed in this room has been enhanced using funding received from the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network. The laboratory currently supports the research and training activities of several faculty members (including two INBRE/LBRN principal investigators) and their students. We propose four specific aims in this renovation: Specific Aim 1: Improve workflow by replacing the existing casework with modern workstations connected to power and Ethernet. Specific Aim 2: Enhance laboratory safety and functionality by installing a new fume hood and solvent cabinet. Specific Aim 3: Boost the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in biolo...