Infectious disease laboratory prepares for germs
By JENNA YOUNGS
Columbia Daily Tribune
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Scientists at the University of Missouri won't have to wait much longer to study infectious diseases such as anthrax, rabbit fever, West Nile virus and Q fever.
Campus officials will dedicate MU's Regional Biocontainment Laboratory on Saturday, though the official opening won't be for another couple of months, said George Stewart, chairman of MU's Department of Veterinary Pathology. The dedication ceremony starts at 10 a.m. and is open to the public. Tours of the facility will be given after the dedication.
In 2003, MU was one of nine universities receiving a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a sector of the National Institutes of Health, to build a Level 3 laboratory to study and assist national, state and local public health efforts in response to bioterrorist threats and infectious-disease emergencies, according to an MU news release.
MU received $13.4 million for the lab, MU spokesman Christian Basi said, and contributed about $4.6 million to complete construction, said Deborah Anderson, associate director of the Regional Biocontainment Lab.
Laboratories designated Level 3 - a reference to its security status - house "significant" airborne infectious pathogens for which there are vaccines or treatments, Stewart said.
In 2006, MU was considered by the Department of Homeland Security for a Level 4 National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, which would have housed lethal infectious diseases that have no cure such as Ebola and avian flu. Some Columbia community members complained that the proposed site was too close to residential areas, and MU is no longer being considered for that lab.
Stewart said Columbia residents should not fear for their safety when the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory opens. There are several security barriers in place, he said, and the space was put through a "commissioning" process where all safety systems were purposefully failed to ensure back-up systems work properly, Stewart said.
"These facilities have an outstanding track record of safety," Stewart said. "They are built to keep anyone outside of the building safe from activities inside. There have been no documented cases of anyone from the communities surrounding these facilities coming down with a disease in the 30-plus years they've existed."
The National Institutes of Health funded Regional Biocontainment Laboratories at 13 universities, including MU, Duke University and Colorado State University, as part of its bio-defense research agenda. The lab will provide MU scientists with a space to "enhance knowledge about certain biological agents and develop methods to protect the human and animal populations," according to an MU news release.
Stewart said researchers from the School of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Medicine will work together at the new facility.
The facility "is going to allow us to continue research into emerging infectious diseases and look at pathogens we weren't able to study before," he said. "It's a wonderful opportunity. This isn't a facility you can find everywhere."
Stewart said that pathogens would not be moved into the building until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approves the lab's security system. He said the university is allowing the public to tour the facility - off East Campus Drive near the Animal Sciences Research Center - before disease specimens are stored and studied there.
"There's some curiosity on campus and in the community" about the lab, Stewart said. "This is an opportunity for us to explain all of its features and what we'll be doing."
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