BU Biolab Nears OK Amid Hopes for Tackling Ebola, Safety Concerns
Original article from: Boston Globe posted on October 6, 2014. By Felice J. Freyer
As the Ebola outbreak rages in West Africa, a seven-story laboratory designed to study that virus and others like it stands mostly empty in Boston’s South End.
But researchers at Boston University, which built the high-security lab with $200 million in federal money, expect a decade of frustration to end soon, perhaps within a year.
BU’s plans have survived 11 years of risk assessments, public hearings, and lawsuits from critics who question the laboratory’s safety and value. Now, a review by the Boston Public Health Commission and an inspection by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are the final hurdles before scientists can hunt for treatments and vaccines against the world’s deadliest pathogens.