Five years after construction first started, then stopped, then started again, Oxford University's controversial animal research lab officially opened its doors today (Nov. 11).

Construction of the £18 million ($28 million) Biomedical Sciences Building began in 2003, but was suspended in 2004 for 16 months after the contractors pulled out in the face of intimidation from animal rights activists. The university then obtained an injunction against the protestors, established an exclusion zone around the facility, and the government provided additional security to allow the lab's construction to go ahead. The four-story building is still ringed by a wooden fence topped with barbed wire, and remains under constant surveillance by CCTV cameras.

Only mice have been moved into the facility so far. But over the coming months, the lab's staff plans to transfer other animals -- including ferrets, tadpoles, zebrafish, and monkeys -- into the center, which will bring more than 100 animal research projects currently run across the university campus under one roof. The lab is expected to be fully up and running by the middle of 2009, according to the Guardian.

An entire floor of the new facility is dedicated to the lab's most contentious subjects -- macaques -- which will make up less than 0.5% of the animals in the new facility. For an inside look at the animal research lab's primate facilities from the BBC, click here.