News

Cutting-edge lab – Hamilton’s $7 million facility features state-of-the-art safety, security

After nearly
three years
of
construction,
a new
facility at
Hamilton’s
Rocky
Mountain
Laboratories
opens its
doors with
scientists
waiting in
the wings.

By JENNY
JOHNSON
Staff
Reporter

The new, highly secure lab will allow scientists to expand their research beyond
the limits of most laboratories in the country. With controlled access, security
elements in place and an adjacent animal lab, the new biosafety level 3 lab can
house dangerous pathogens that require special facilities for research.

"This is a state-of-the-art facility," said Dr. James Musser, chief of human the
bacterial pathogenesis lab. "It’s astoundingly exciting. Essentially we’re adding
15,000-square feet of critical research for the U.S."

Many of the lab’s scientists already have projects lined up for the research in the
four suites on the north side of the new facility. Once their research and
procedures are approved by a set of on-site committees, scientists will be able to
move into the new lab, according to Chief Administrator Pat Stewart.

"It will do a lot of for us," Ted Hackstadt said. "There is research that we haven’t
been able to do for four or five years because we haven’t had the facility."

Most of the labs on the Hamilton campus are biosafety level 1 and 2, which
require safety measures not as stringent as the new lab or the future highly
secure biosafety level 4 lab to be built on the Hamilton campus in the next three
years. Federal officials decided to construct a biosafety level 4 lab on the
Hamilton campus following a directive from President Bush after the Sept. 11
attacks.

The Rocky Mountain Laboratories are a division of National Institutes for Health
and federal funded.

While a lot of the science pertaining to the pathogens studied at the complex will
still be done on dead tissue in other labs, work on live, level 3 agents must take
place in a biosafety cabinet. Each lab suite will house only one pathogen at a
time, Hackstadt said.

Differences between a level 3 lab’s safety and less secure labs mostly deal with
access, Stewart said. But there are many other features that lend to its safety
such as procedures for research, spills and personnel. The facility’s interior is
sealed with special paint much like the material used in spray-on bed liners that
makes the rooms seamless, and everything from electrical outlets to air vents
are sealed within the negative-pressure atmosphere of the facility.

Massive air handling units pull air out of the building faster than the intake units
allow air in, keeping the negative pressure in the building. At the heart of the
air-flow system are several biosafety cabinets, in which all of the research on live
pathogens is done. Air removed from those cabinets is sent directly into a HEPA
filtration system before exiting the building. Air is rotated out of the building from
10 to 15 times an hour, according to Kelly Hudson, the project officer who
managed the construction.

The technical area supporting the first-floor labs is as big as the lab’s working
area, Hudson said. It contains all of the technical engineering for the facility,
which is able to be maintained and repaired from the second floor rather than
entering a lab.

Interlocking double doors prohibit unauthorized people from entering the building,
and the entire facility is protected by a security system. Everything is redundant.

The whole facility took a lot of planning, Musser said. And with a few changes
during construction, the complex facility took nearly three years and cost about
$7 million to complete.

Laboratory employees got to tour the facility Thursday, but once research is
being conducted, access will be limited to those involved – either in scientific
research in the four identical science suites or in the animal laboratory on the
other side of the building.

With the additional research being conducted at the Hamilton campus, including
that on animals, Mike Parnell plans to hire a few more technicians within the
next year, he said.

The 10 animal housing rooms in the new facility could house thousands of
animals, he said. The rooms have equal safety features as the rest of the lab and
have similar biosafety equipment such as cabinets and air-handling units.

"Taking care of the animals is a highly technical job," he said.

Unlike the scientists who work with pathogens, those working with animals will
be required to wear scrubs, Parnell said. Those techs care for the animals and
their equipment, including washing cages in one of the most expensive
"dishwashers" in the country.

The area for washing cages includes two rooms and a sophisticated washer that
meets all guidelines for biomedical safety, Parnell said. The cage-washing area
was the most expensive component of the new facility with a price tag of about
$2 million dollars.

"Anything that has to do with biomedical research is expensive," he said.

Among the reasons to connect the future lab to the biosafety level 3 lab would be
to avoid duplication of the large and expensive cage-washing area, Stewart said.
That idea is in the works during the design stages of developing the future lab,
which may include expansion of the building just completed.

There are no floor drains in the new facility, because then the lab would have to
treat the effluent, Parnell said. Everything in the facility has to be cleaned up,
disinfected, autoclaved before it leaves the building. Items that are disposed of
are incinerated on site.

http://www.ravallinews.com/display/inn_news/news4.txt

Posted in:

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.