The Boston Globe | January 28, 2003

BU Center May Seek Biosafety Lab Funds

by Stephen Smith

Boston University Medical Center officials said yesterday they are preparing to seek federal grants amounting to as much as $1.6 billion to build and run one of the nation's most sophisticated and high-security biodefense research laboratories, where scientists hunt for treatments and vaccines against potentially lethal agents ranging from smallpox to plague to anthrax.

The Biosafety Level 4 laboratory - the most secure category of labs, reserved for working with the deadliest germs and viruses known to mankind - would stand in the heart of the city, rising near the South End campus of Boston Medical Center and BU's medical school.

While much of the research would involve innocuous fragments of the dangerous agents, scientists clad in "moon suits" would on occasion work with the actual infectious substances, including bacteria and viruses such as ebola.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases wants one or two new Level 4 labs to open before the end of the decade, in one of the most expensive - and delicate - manifestations of the nation's war on bioterrorism and against newly emerging molecular bugs.

"The highest health officials in the nation have put together a plan to better defend America against both bioterror and emerging infectious diseases," said Dr. Mark S. Klempner, assistant provost for research at the BU medical campus. "There's going to be a huge competition to fulfill this need, and we feel that it is our national duty to respond. It is in the best interest of the nation, it is in the best interest of Boston, and we have a lot to offer."

Representatives of the BU Medical Center, a consortium of the hospital and medical school, intend to meet with civic associations in coming weeks to address questions regarding the safety of the laboratory, said Ellen Berlin, director of communications for the medical center.

A spokesman for the Boston Public Health Commission yesterday said that the agency would reserve comment until members have more details.

The need for additional Level 4 labs became apparent to federal authorities in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the delivery of letters laden with anthrax spores. In fact, a panel commissioned by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases determined that the United States has a "serious shortage of high-level biocontainment laboratories," according to
an agency document detailing the need for more labs.

Currently, six such labs exist in North America, with five in the United States and one in Canada. A Level 4 lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is home to one of the world's two known remaining vials of smallpox.

The existing Level 4 labs are oriented primarily toward reacting to crisis rather than exploring treatments and vaccines. Scientists in the proposed labs, while also offering the ability to respond to an attack, would spend much of their time investigating inoculations to prevent disease and treatments for people exposed to dangerous substances.

That would translate into performing sensitive animal research, as well as testing vaccines against agents such as anthrax on human volunteers.

The scope of the research is evident in a description of a Level 4 lab contained in the government document that sketches the parameters for pursuing the federal grants: "Facilities must be suitable to work on dangerous or exotic agents that pose a high or yet to be determined risk of life-threatening disease and that are capable of aerosol transmission."

For that reason, the most sensitive portions of a Level 4 lab have been compared to a submarine locked in a bank vault, with air and water restricted to that specific space, and systems to treat research waste on-site.

The construction costs alone would rise as high as $200 million, with up to $1.4 billion devoted to research and related costs over a 20-year period.

The medical center would have to pay for one-quarter of the construction costs, Klempner said.
BU and Boston Medical Center will decide whether to proceed with an application within two to three weeks, Klempner said yesterday. The deadline for applying is Feb. 10.

But the medical center is sufficiently serious about pursuing the federal grants that it has already developed a name - the National Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases and Biodefense - and drafted a list of frequently asked questions. As envisioned by administrators, the lab would become an integral component of the medical center's BioSquare, sitting
close to Albany Street.

"We're aggressively considering it," said Berlin. "These kinds of centers need to be where the researchers are, and some of the best researchers in the world are right here in Boston."
Already, competitors have emerged across the nation, including the University of California in Davis, the University of Illinois in Chicago, and the University of Texas in Galveston.

The federal agency expects to make a decision between September and November, with research not likely to begin before 2007 or 2008.

In recent months, researchers and administrators from Boston Medical Center and BU have conducted quiet discussions with scientific and community leaders, cultivating support for a laboratory imbued with the potential for scientific discovery and the peril that always accompanies the study of dangerous materials.

"We've been talking to a lot of people around the area to see what they think," Klempner said. "We're confident that these things can be built to the highest standards of safety. After all, my office will be right in it."

Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.