BU opens Biolab doors for invite-only tour
By Julie M. Donnelly (From Boston Business Journal), January 10, 2012
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino led a tour Tuesday of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory (NEIDL), better known as the Boston University biolab. The tour was designed to highlight both the safety features and the prospective economic impact of the facility, which the city estimates at $98 million per year. NEIDL, one of only two biosafety level-4 labs in the country, has largely lain dormant since its completion in 2008, due to legal and regulatory hold-ups. Concerns stem from the fact that part of the facility would be used to study exotic, fatal infections including the Ebola virus.
The lab is located at 620 Albany St. in Boston’s South End.
Biolab backers say once the 192,000-square-foot, seven-story facility is fully operational it will have a total economic benefit of $98 million per year, including $45 million in research grants from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health. The project will create 297 new jobs, Boston University administrators said, and 30 to 40 of those jobs have already been filled. Backers estimate that the facility will create an additional 380 ancillary jobs in retail, construction and other local industries. Menino said it would also be a boon for the local life sciences industry.
“There are great opportunities for collaboration between the private sector and the public sector,” Menino said. “We’re going to be able to attract more of the world’s renowned researchers to help find the cures to some of these diseases. We’ve always been an innovator in this area and this is another step forward.”
Boston University recently received a waiver from state regulators to begin work in the less-controversial biosafety level-2 labs, which will include research on infections that are less contagious and for which there are available treatments, such as Dengue fever and measles. There are a number of other biosafety level-2 labs in the state, at both academic institutions and life sciences companies. Researchers already have grants in hand for BSL-2 work, which will begin within the next few months.
“We are looking to add three or four more teams of researchers to support the biosafety level-2 work in the next several months,” BU Associate Provost Dr. Ron Corley, who led the tour, said. Each team will include between 3 and 12 researchers.
Security features include hundreds of cameras throughout the facility, background checks for workers, and very limited access to only those areas where the researcher directly works. Stairwells between floors are off limits. Each floor has an eye scanner to identify the worker, and controls that prevent an extra person from “piggy-backing” on the entry of an authorized worker.
In terms of safety for the workers and the general public, researchers in the BSL-4 labs would have to wear $2600 space suits, breathe filtered air and take a seven minute chemical shower in the suit before leaving the most sensitive part of the lab. A negative air flow system is designed to drive any airborne agent back into the inner sanctum of the labs, rather than out into the corridors.
Menino struck back at critics of the plant, saying “We probably have more stringent rules and regulations of any city in the country.” Asked by reporters about incidents of spills at biosafety level-2 labs elsewhere at BU, Menino said, “BU reacted immediately, the Public Health commission reacted immediately, we put procedures in place to deal with the issues. We’re concerned about public safety.”
While the tour was billed as an opportunity for community leaders to view the safety and security features of the facility, there appeared to be only friendly organizations represented. BU officials said that a number of other organizations, some of which are skeptical about the safety of the plant, were invited but could not attend. The Conservation Law Foundation, the plaintiff in one of the two lawsuits opposing the lab, was not invited. BU officials said there would be future tours they could attend.
The National Institutes of Health is in the final stages of a risk assessment of the facility, which will include a public hearing in Roxbury that was initially scheduled for February 16 but has not been delayed. Once that is completed, BU can apply to the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Agency for permits for the biosafety level-3 and level-4 labs. BU spokesman Steve Burgay said he anticipates at that point the plaintiffs in the two pending lawsuits would ask the judges to review the risk assessment. He said it is unlikely the level-3 and level-4 labs would be up and running before 2013.