The University of California, Davis opened a $58.5 million research facility for the School of Veterinary Medicine in March of 2013. Featuring collaborative open laboratories, the four-story, 76,000-asf Research Facility 3B will support 40 teams investigating animal, human, and environmental health issues including zoonotic diseases, autism, nutrition, reproduction, respiratory disease, neurobiology, food safety, toxicology, and aquatic toxicology.
The University of Edinburgh began building the National Avian Research Facility in early 2013. The $22 million research laboratory represents a partnership of the Roslin Institute of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and The Pirbright Institute. The facility will include specific-pathogen-free (SPF) areas for research with genetically modified poultry. Completion is expected in late 2014.
India's National Institute of Virology has completed the Maximum Containment Laboratory in Pune. Established by the Indian Council of Medical Research, the BSL-4 facility is located in the existing Maximum Containment Facility and meets the biocontainment guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. The Maximum Containment Laboratory is comprised of two suites, each providing a main lab and two animal labs. The secure facility includes a gamma radiation lab for sample processing and a training area.
Diamond Light Source, the United Kingdom's national synchrotron facility, opened the Crystal biocontainment imaging laboratory in February of 2013 in Oxford. The containment level three (CL3) facility supports the analysis of viruses and infectious diseases at the atomic and molecular level using synchrotron light.
The Clara Christie Centre for Mouse Genomics at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, provides a centralized 33,000-sf facility for the production and breeding of transgenic mice, primarily serving researchers in western Canada. The center's design and operations address the needs not only of the research community, but also its animals, researchers, and staff, resulting in lower employee turnover, injuries, and sick days.
The University of Texas Pan American is planning to build a $96 million science facility in Edinburg, Texas. The 162,600-sf annex will accommodate programs in biology, chemistry, engineering, physics, geology, mathematics, health sciences, technology, and environmental studies. The project will provide two BSL-3 labs and five specialized research suites for imaging, tissue culture, instrumentation, radioisotopes, and an herbarium.
Tufts University began building the Arnold 8 Biosafety Laboratory in February of 2013. Located in an existing building on the School of Medicine campus in Boston, the BSL-3 facility will support research on tuberculosis. The laboratory is being built by Shawmut Design & Construction.
Texas A&M University is planning to build the $285.6 million Pandemic Influenza Facility in the Bryan-College Station BioCorridor. The 151,600-sf project will accommodate the development of countermeasures for pandemic and biological threats and is supported by $176 million in federal funding. The facility will house cleanrooms for vaccine manufacturing, decontamination rooms, quality control labs, and a central utility plant. Construction will begin in June of 2013 with completion expected in December of 2014.
This book is a collection of management experiences, insights, and lessons learned on building and operating high-containment facilities from facility planners, project directors, owners, end users, science program managers, and facility operators who have worked in the high-containment arena for the ten-year period 2002-2012.
Recent high-profile natural disasters and human-based incidents are driving vivarium facility owners to reevaluate their disaster and contingency plans. Traditional approaches to risk assessment and research preservation are often over-simplified, understaffed, and insufficiently funded. A new shift in thinking focuses on preparing for the net results of losing utilities, an entire building, or access to a section of campus rather than the initial causes.
The new Toronto Public Health Laboratory will be built on the top four floors of the MaRS Phase II Tower in Ontario, Canada. Merrick & Company, Diamond Schmitt Architects, and HH Angus are planning and designing the facility, which includes CL-2 and CL-3 labs, associated support systems, and offices. The project will provide flexible research space designed for ease of adaption to new testing platforms, workload surges, and changing research activities.
The National Institute of Virology opened a BSL-4 laboratory in December of 2012 in Pune, India. The $12 million facility is the first level four biocontainment lab in the country and will support the detection and study of infectious disease agents and pathogens. The National Institute of Virology campus also includes existing BSL-3 and BSL-2 laboratories.
The National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) opened 30,000 sf of BSL-3 laboratory space at Fort Detrick in December of 2012. The facilities have been accredited by the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, enabling the center to operate at full capacity. Construction was completed on the project in 2009. NBACC is operated by Battelle National Biodefense Institute for the Department of Homeland Security and includes 11,000 sf of BSL-4 space.
Tradeline asked 120 individuals representing 98 research organizations to prioritize their areas of focus for 2013 and to make open-ended comments regarding those priorities. The priorities identified in this survey will be the focus of Tradeline's upcoming conference: The 2013 International Conference on Biocontainment Facilities on March 18-19, 2013, in San Diego.
The respondents’ overall priorities are:
1. Pressure and airflow control
2. Maintenance/operations requirements and processes
3. People, teams, and competency
Despite years of planning, in-depth professional experience, and multiple layers of oversight, things often do not work as planned at biocontainment laboratories. Even when they meet all safety and security requirements, facilities may run into unexpected life cycle costs which only become evident after a year or two of occupancy and operation, says Tim Mandrell, DVM, director of lab animal care for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHTC) Regional Biocontainment Laboratory. Knowing what problems to look and prepare for can help minimize costly facility downtime.
