Biocontainment

Cleveland Clinic Florida opened the 107,000-sf Florida Research & Innovation Center in July of 2020 in Port St. Lucie. Accelerating the translation of medical discoveries into innovative therapeutics for clinical treatment, the facility will provide leading-edge laboratories for research programs in immuno-oncology and infectious diseases, such as Zika virus and SARS-CoV-2. The center includes BSL-3 biocontainment suites, administrative offices, meeting rooms, and an area for training programs. 

Communities, corporations, and educational institutions are drafting plans to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, employing policies around personal protective equipment; keeping a 6-foot distance from co-workers, peers, and clients; and reconfiguring their physical spaces. Another potential mitigation strategy is to adjust a facility’s mechanical system to better protect the occupants, though that should not be considered the primary solution, cautions Michael Walsh, PE, LEED AP, senior mechanical engineer and principal at R.G. Vanderweil Engineers, LLP. “There’s no silver bullet,” he says.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will begin construction in early 2021 on the 160,000-sf High Containment Continuity Laboratory in Atlanta. Designed by a joint venture of Flad Architects and Page, the BSL-4 facility will support the CDC's mission to rapidly detect and mitigate public health hazards. Accommodating approximately 80 investigators, the state-of-the-art laboratory will be one of three centers in the world designed and certified to facilitate diagnostic research on specific, select viruses.

Access to quick, reliable, and repeated testing has been one of the greatest challenges for businesses, institutions, and individuals during the SARS-CoV-2 crisis. HOK has partnered with Germfree Laboratories to design a mobile testing lab that will help large organizations to meet this urgent need. These self-contained biocontainment facilities can provide advanced, onsite capabilities for any setting.

Genomic Partnership Wales is planning to construct a research facility in Cardiff in the United Kingdom to accelerate the development of pharmaceutical therapies. Created by a consortium of government, academic, and medical partners, the project involves the redevelopment of an existing two-story building to provide leading-edge genetics labs, seminar rooms, treatment suites, offices, freezer rooms, and support. The facility will include CL2 biocontainment research suites to ensure compliance with the UK's HBN 15 regulations for pathology services.

Allentown, an industry leader in research animal housing solutions, is offering a webinar on May 20, 2020. "Benefits of Biocontainment" will address the global challenges facing the animal housing industry and the ways in which biocontainment protocols can help address some of these issues when employed in the Allentown BCU-2 IVC and Cage system.

The webinar will be aired in two sessions at 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM EDT. 

To register, visit Allentown, Inc.
 

E4H Architecture presented a webinar on modular facilities for accelerating vaccine development on May 8, 2020. Now available as an on-demand recording, the exciting session is led by Jeff Schantz, Director of Health Sciences and Technology at E4H. Jeff reviews planning strategies for adapting multi-therapeutic cGMP/BSL-3 cleanroom modules for SARS-CoV-2 response and cell therapy development. Presentation topics include regulatory guidelines, HVAC requirements, design and flow considerations, and decontamination strategies.

Tecniplast is offering a webinar on the use of the DVC® System to optimize animal modelling in mouse vivaria. “Improving Animal Modelling with 24/7 Home Cage Monitoring in Bio-exclusion/Biocontainment Mouse Housing Systems” will detail how the DVC® technology applied to the ISO caging system can deliver improved data replicability, animal welfare, and research results. 

The Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (VIMC) is being constructed on an accelerated schedule in Oxford in the United Kingdom. Ground was broken on the £66 million project in April of 2020 and occupancy is expected in 2021, a year earlier than previously planned.

Price Industries is significantly increasing production of its air filtration systems in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Instantly creating a negative-pressure isolation room, the company's fan filter unit can draw airborne virus out through a biosafety filter for expulsion through the building's exhaust vent or directly to the outside. The units can dramatically reduce airborne virus in healthcare environments such as nursing stations and temporary hospitals, and can even be used in hotel rooms that have been repurposed as care facilities.

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) has assembled a task force to address the role of the built environment in reducing the impact of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory infections. Aiming to define the critical role that buildings, organizations, and communities play in infectious disease management, the work will take a broad approach in considering both new and recurring agents that can affect large populations.

The Australian government has awarded AUD$220 million in federal funding to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) for upgrades to its biocontainment research facilities in Geelong. Constructed 35 years ago, the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (formerly the Australian Animal Health Laboratory) is a secure campus with four laboratory structures offering BSL-4 research space.

VACUUBRAND is offering continuing education courses approved by the American Institute of Architects and Green Business Certification Inc. Providing engineers and designers with the skills to create sustainable, high-performance laboratories, each course is available as a general webinar, a private webinar, or as an on-demand learning experience. AIA members will receive one LU/HSW (Health-Safety-Welfare learning unit) for each one-hour course.

ASHRAE, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, has created an epidemic task force to respond to the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and provide guidance on how to ensure that buildings are prepared for current and future epidemics. The ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force has been established to deploy ASHRAE’s technical resources to address the impact of HVAC systems on disease transmission in healthcare facilities, workplaces, homes, public spaces, and recreational environments.

Georgia State University is planning to construct an $84 million research building in Atlanta for the study of global infectious diseases. Designed by HOK, the 84,100-sf biocontainment facility will provide BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs, a vivarium, collaborative open research areas, offices, and support space. A design-bid-build contractor is being sought for the project, which has an estimated construction cost of $66 million. The structure represents the third phase of development at the university's Science Park and is slated for completion in 2022.