Industry News

Covance is constructing a 300,000-sf animal testing laboratory in Chandler, Arizona. The facility broke ground in June of 2007 and is slated to begin operations in early 2009. Construction was temporarily halted by a lawsuit which called into question the building permit and zoning for the facility due to alleged non-public meetings between the City of Chandler and Covance. The case was dismissed in February of 2008, allowing construction to resume.

The long-awatited 5th edition of the Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) guide is now online on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov/od/ohs/biosfty/bmbl5/bmbl5toc.htm .

UC Davis is proposing to construct five new buildings at the California National Primate Research Center in Davis, Calif. A $5.3-million, 10,000-sf building would accommodate virology and immunology research and would include a 1,100-sf BSL-3 laboratory. Four additional modular buildings would have a footprint of approximately 1,500 sf each, two comprised of laboratory space and two housing office space. Each of the modular buildings would cost approximately $800,000.

Iowa State University (ISU) began construction in late 2006 on the first phase of a $51-million renovation of its Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory and Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The project includes renovations to the existing 100,000-sf facility and a 55,000-sf addition housing an advanced imaging facility with improved biocontainment capabilities. The second project phase entails renovations of a vacant small animal facility to enable future expansion. Both phases are expected to reach completion in late 2009.

The University of Saskatchewan has begun construction on the $110 million International Vaccine Center (InterVac) in Saskatoon. Designed by Smith Carter of Winnipeg, the 165,000-sf facility will include large animal testing facilities and BSL-3 containment laboratories for infectious disease and vaccine research.