NEIDL in the News
Neighbors fear BU’s Infectious Disease Lab is ‘Gambling with our Safety
Original article from Boston Herald by Mary Markos. August 3, 2018 Researchers at a controversial Boston University lab are experimenting with Ebola in the heart of the city and neighbors are sounding the alarm about the threat of a potentially life-threatening slip up. The first project in Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious... More
Ebola Research Begins at NEIDL
Original article from BU Today by Art Jahnke. August 2, 2018 Eight months after receiving final approval from the Boston Public Health Commission to conduct research at Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4), Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) has begun work with its first Level-4 pathogen, the Ebola virus. “This is... More
Can the Egyptian Fruit Bat’s Unusual Genome show us How to Fight Deadly Marburg Virus?
Original article from Genetic Literacy Project by Ricki Lewis. June 5, 2018 The Egyptian fruit bat's immune system enables it to peacefully co-exist with Marburg virus, which can cause a swiftly deadly infection in humans. Although Marburg virus disease affects only a few dozen or hundred people a year, the case:fatality... More
BU Experts on New Ebola Outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo
Original article from BU Today by Barbara Moran. May 31, 2018 On May 8, 2018, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared a new outbreak of Ebola virus disease centered on the market town of Bikoro, near the DRC’s border with the Republic of Congo. This is DRC’s ninth Ebola... More
Fear and Suspicion Hinder Congo Medics in Ebola Battle
Original article from Reuters by Aaron Ross. May 25, 2018 DAKAR (Reuters) - With more than twice as many Ebola outbreaks as any other country since the virus was discovered in 1976, Congolese are familiar with its destructive power, yet fear and suspicion of medical authorities are still hindering efforts at... More
Vaccines Alone Won’t Beat Ebola
Original article from The Atlantic by Ed Yong . May 24, 2018 Three people who had been infected with Ebola recently left an isolation ward at Wangata Hospital against medical advice, according to the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ministry of Health. The hospital lies in Mbandaka, a city of 1.2... More
An Ebola Vaccine Gets Its First Real-World Test
Original article from WIRED by Adam Rogers. May 21, 2018 The Ebola virus kills half the people who get it, and it’s a tragically familiar disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since scientists first characterized the disease in 1976, Congo has had nine outbreaks. Now it’s happening again: To date... More
DRC: Experimental Ebola Vaccine to be Administered in Mbandaka
Original article from The Guardian by Jason Burke. May 20, 2018 Health authorities and NGOs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will begin administering an experimental Ebola vaccine on Monday in Mbandaka, the north-western city of 1.2 million people where the deadly disease was detected last week. The campaign aims to... More
Bats Carry Deadly Viruses But Don’t Get Sick. How?
Original article from Futurity by Barbara Moran. April 26, 2018 The newly-sequenced genome of an Egyptian fruit bat from a cave in Uganda offers clues as to how bats harbor and transmit deadly viruses—but don’t get sick themselves. Researchers were investigating a 2008 case of a 44-year-old woman from Colorado who returned... More
Diagnosing Ebola before Symptoms Arrive
Original article from BU Today by Barbara Moran. March 29, 2018 In 2014, an Ebola epidemic began to ravage West Africa. It became the largest Ebola outbreak in history, lasting two years and infecting an estimated 28,000 people—most in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. Ultimately, it took more than 11,000 lives. Many... More
BU Study Raises Prospect of Earlier Diagnosis of Deadly Ebola Virus
Original article from Boston Globe by Martin Finucane. March 28, 2018 Researchers at Boston University say they have detected signs that the deadly Ebola virus causes an immune response in monkeys four days before they begin exhibiting symptoms. More research is needed, but the discovery raises the prospect of diagnosing the disease... More
BU Biolab Prepares To Study Deadly Viruses After Decade Of Controversy
Original article from CBS Boston by Lisa Hughes. January 9, 2018 BOSTON (CBS) – They will study some of the most deadly viruses in the world and the lab is in a densely populated Boston neighborhood. After more than a decade of controversy, Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory (NEIDL) has received its... More
Boston University Gears Up To Research Ebola (Video)
Original article from: WGBH News posted on January 4, 2018. by Cristina Quinn After years of neighborhood battles, Boston University has won approval to conduct biosafety level 4 research. In layman's terms, that means they can now study the world's deadliest pathogens at the university’s National Emerging Infectious Disease Lab on... More
BU Lab will Begin Studying Deadly Viruses
Original article from The Boston Globe by Sophia Eppolito. December 12th, 2017 Boston University’s high-security laboratory can begin studying Ebola, Zika, and other deadly pathogens, after the city’s public health commission gave final approval last week for the work to proceed. The move ended a decade and a half of controversy... More
The BU Biolab Will Work With the Most Dangerous Microbes on Earth, Finally
Original article from Boston Magazine by Spencer Buell. December 7th, 2017 Sure, there’s plenty of good reason to be cautious about having a bevy of deadly pathogens in your backyard. And when it comes to Boston University’s plans to study the world’s most dangerous bugs in the South End—microbes like Ebola and the... More
NEIDL BSL-4 Lab Gets Green Light
Original article from BU Today by Sara Rimer. December 6th, 2017 After years of scrutiny by regulatory agencies and city, state, and federal officials, Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) has received final approval from the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) to conduct research at Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4). “We’re... More
BU Infectious Disease Lab gets Clearance to Work with Ebola, Marburg Viruses
Original article from Boston Business Journal by Jessica Bartlett. December 7th, 2017 Boston University researchers will now be allowed to work with pathogens as viral as Ebola, following the upgrade of one of its labs being upgraded to a Biosafety Level 4 facility by the Boston Public Health Commission. The upgrade to... More
Boston University To Begin Researching World’s Deadliest Infectious Diseases At ‘Biolab’ (Audio)
Original article from WBUR by Lisa Mullins and Lynn Jolicoeur. December 6th, 2017 Boston University has received final approval to begin researching the world's deadliest infectious diseases at its so-called "Biolab" in Boston's South End. The Boston Public Health Commission gave that approval Wednesday. The Centers for Disease Control had given approval... More
Research On the World’s Deadliest Microbes will soon begin at a Boston Lab
Original article from The Boston Globe by Felice J. Freyer and Danny McDonald. December 6th, 2017 The Boston Public Health Commission on Wednesday gave the final approval for Boston University’s high-security laboratory to start research on the world’s deadliest microbes, ending a decade and a half of controversy. The commission’s OK was the... More
Emergency Response Exercise To Be Conducted 11-15-17
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NOVEMBER 15, 2017 Contact: Colin Riley (617) 353-5386, criley@bu.edu (Boston) – On Wednesday, November 15, between 9 a.m.- noon, Boston University (BU) will conduct an emergency response exercise at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) located at 620 Albany Street. This simulation is part of the NEIDL’s ongoing... More