BU Biolab includes Multiple Layers of Safety
Original article from: Boston Globe posted on October 6, 2014. By Felice J. Freyer
You pass through multiple doorways and undergo multiple identity checks, and then enter the room where all your clothes come off. You can keep your eyeglasses, but that’s it.
You have crossed the threshold from the outer sections of Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories into a separate structure within: the Biosafety Level 4 laboratory, where scientists are allowed to study some of the world’s deadliest mircorbes.
This earthquake-proof inner sanctum has 12-inch thick walls. It isn’t open yet, but people work there on less deadly germs to train for the day when, they hope, it will be cleared for operation.