Project Type: Laboratories

Wistar Institute
Philadelphia, PA

The Wistar Institute, a global leader in biomedical research, specializes in cancer, immunology, infectious disease, and vaccine development. Located on Spruce Street in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Wistar was founded in 1892 as a nonprofit institution to focus on biomedical research and training.

Wistar was experiencing problems in their animal holding rooms, specifically, mice were acting erratically, and their breeding cycles were elongated. Metropolitan Acoustics was hired because researchers suspected that vibration and sound were the culprits for this behavior change. The labs at Wistar are susceptible to external vibration and noise from public transportation sources, mechanical systems in the building, and nearby construction. Our work on this project involved monitoring vibration levels in 15 rodent holding rooms over a period of several weeks. By continually monitoring vibration, we could correlate the vibration to internal activity – including cleaners, loading dock activity, and HVAC systems, and external activity – including construction, vehicular traffic, and mass transit. By employing long term monitoring, we were able to identify the rooms most affected by vibration and what the sources were.