The BioLab is important for public health
South End News
March 9, 2006
The federal government recently completed the final review necessary on the BioLab at Boston University Medical Center and construction is underway. As a scientist who will work in this facility and as a resident of the South End, I am excited about the potential of this state-of-the-art facility and the prospect that it offers for the development of new vaccines and treatments for some of the most dangerous diseases we face.
The approval process for the lab has taken over three years. During this time many agencies at the local, state and federal government level have rigorously reviewed this project from environmental, safety, zoning, as well as from the community perspective at hundreds of community meetings. But while the regulatory process has concluded, it is only the beginning of the public’s participation in the many of the BioLab’s committees that will ensure transparency and oversight of research -that win be conducted in the lab.
Boston University will own, manage and operate the BioLab. This means that prior to initiation of any research project, the proposed research is reviewed by standing committees that examine the proposed’ research for appropriateness and safety. These committees, such, as the Institutional Biosafety Committee, include community representatives who participate in the review. Full disclosure of the research project to the scientific and community reviewers is required. No secret research is permitted. The Boston Public Health Commission will also provide stringent oversight of our work. There is much to do, and now is the time for members of the public to join with us.
We have always said that the BioLab’s mission was to conduct research on infectious diseases that threaten the safety and security of Boston, the nation and the world – nothing more and nothing less. Our job is to make these emerging and sometimes incurable diseases curable. Yes, some of those diseases that will be studied in the laboratory include some of the most dangerous pathogens known. That is precisely why researchers must study them in the safest environment possible.
The BioLab will be supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The sole purpose of research conducted under NIH sponsorship is to promote improved health for the American people. The NIH and BUMC support the policy of encouraging publication and dissemination of research findings through peer reviewed journals. BUMC does not, and will not, support secret or classified research. Simply put, our work will not include research on bioweapons. Bioweapons research is illegal.
This laboratory will be part of a national network of research facilities that will develop tests, vaccines, and new treatments for emerging infectious diseases. It was not so long ago when there were no vaccines, treatments or cures for measles, polio, hepatitis, rabies, rubella, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and many of the bacterial diseases that caused meningitis. At that time more than tens of thousands of children a year in the United States would die or be were severely injured by these “most dangerous and exotic pathogens”. Thankfully, those who came before us conducted research that led to the vaccines and antibiotics that protect our children from sickness and death from these, and many other “exotic” infectious diseases. In more recent times, the biomedical research community has made continuing strides against HIV, influenza and herpes viruses, and we have seen improvements in diagnosis and treatments for these infections. The time will come when these diseases will join the ranks of those that have been almost eliminated.
We have the opportunity before us to study those emerging infectious diseases that threaten human kind today in a facility that will meet or exceed safety standards in its design, construction and operation. Boston is well known throughout the world for its research expertise in infectious diseases, and now, with the BioLab will again take its position at the forefront of biomedical research. This is important work for our community and for our nation. I am honored to be affiliated with this project and look forward to playing a small part in making feared and incurable infectious diseases of today a distant memory in the future.
By Jack Murphy, PhD
Jack Murphy, a South End resident, is the co-principal investigator for the BioLab and chief of Molecular Medicine at Boston University Medical Center.