NIH Establishes Boston University Biocontainment Committee

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced additional steps in a comprehensive plan in March of 2008 to address public safety concerns regarding a national biocontainment research laboratory now under construction at Boston University Medical Center. Research in the laboratory, the construction of which is funded partly by the NIH, will focus on the development of diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines for a variety of infectious diseases. NIH has established an internal Coordinating Committee to guide the agency's efforts to address safety concerns raised by community representatives and other members of the public, as well as a recent review by the National Research Council. NIH also has established a Blue Ribbon Panel, chaired by Adel Mahmoud, M.D., Ph.D., of Princeton University, that will review current risk assessments and provide independent technical expertise and guidance. The panel includes experts in infectious diseases, public health and epidemiology, risk assessment, environmental justice, risk communications, biodefense, biosafety, and infectious disease modeling. Panel members, listed below, will provide ongoing, expert input and may recommend scenarios to study in any necessary additional risk assessment analyses. The first public meeting of the Blue Ribbon Panel will take place at NIH on March 13, 2008. The panel will be convened as a Working Group of the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director, a standing high-level scientific advisory body providing advice directly to the NIH leadership. The panel will advise the NIH in determining the scope of any additional environmental risk assessment that the agency will conduct. The panel will then provide independent scientific advice regarding the oversight and conduct of the ensuing study and its conclusions. The Blue Ribbon Panel's process of deliberation and consultation will include soliciting the perspectives and input of the National Research Council on the risk assessment studies. Any additional studies would be performed consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which directs agencies to consider the potential environmental impacts of their actions.