Campus leaders are in the process of evaluating recent inquiries from regional officials who have invited UC Davis to consider new locations for a proposed National Biocontainment Laboratory. Meanwhile, informational workshops on the proposed laboratory facility have been scheduled for April 9 and 10.

Since the campus submitted its proposal on Feb. 10 to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for funding to build a National Biocontainment Laboratory at UC Davis, campus leaders have received several inquiries from officials in nearby communities suggesting alternative sites for the proposed laboratory.

In response to these inquiries, UC Davis will provide interested local governments with a brief description of the campus site that was included in the proposal to the NIH. The laboratory proposal identified a 31-acre parcel at the southwest corner of campus, adjacent to the schools of medicine and veterinary medicine, as the optimal site for the biocontainment laboratory.

The campus will also outline main issue areas that should be addressed if those government bodies decide to submit formal letters of interest to UC Davis regarding the potential to host the lab facility in their communities.

UC Davis is open to receiving such letters from local governments up until May 15, 2003. If the NIH does make a site visit to UC Davis later this spring, following scientific peer review of the February applications, the campus will include those letters in its discussion with NIH representatives.

"The National Biocontainment Laboratory would be an extraordinary asset for the nation, state and region," said UC Davis Provost Virginia Hinshaw. "We have assembled a very strong proposal for consideration by the NIH, outlining the many academic and geographic advantages that UC Davis holds. The campus can bring to bear academic resources and collaborative opportunities that are critical for fulfilling the lab's public-health research and training missions.

"We are convinced that the laboratory can be safely constructed and operated in an urban or suburban setting, as has been demonstrated at similar facilities in Atlanta; Winnipeg, Canada; and Lyon, France," Hinshaw said. "We believe that it is in the campus's best interest to evaluate with all due diligence these suggestions from other jurisdictions in the region in order to determine whether alternative sites in the region might add value to our proposal."

Upcoming Meetings

UC Davis will continue its commitment to provide the regional community with information and discussion opportunities concerning its National Biocontainment Laboratory proposal by hosting public workshops April 9 and 10.

The workshops will be held twice each day, from 4-6 p.m. and 7:30-10 p.m. On Wednesday, April 9, the afternoon workshop will be held on campus in 176 Everson Hall (near the campus administration building, Mrak Hall), and the evening workshop will be in 198 Young Hall, east of the Memorial Union. Both of the Thursday, April 10, workshops will be held in Wright Hall (Main Theatre -- near Shields Library).

Each workshop will feature panel presentations on matters related to research, safety and security, and an opportunity for the campus and community to ask questions of the panel members. The panel will include an architect and a biocontainment expert involved in planning the design and operations of the proposed laboratory facility.

Background on the National Biocontainment Lab and Regional Center of Excellence

Committed to meeting the crucial need for infectious disease research and public health diagnostic services in the Western United States, UC Davis in February submitted a proposal to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for funding to build a National Biocontainment Laboratory on the Davis campus. The facility will be primarily devoted to Biosafety Level 2 and 3 laboratory space. It will also include a much smaller, but critically important, area devoted to Biosafety Level 4 activities.

The National Biocontainment Laboratory will be equipped with state-of-the art technology for diagnosing current infectious diseases such as hantavirus, Lyme disease, plague, various strains of influenza, anthrax and West Nile virus. The laboratory would also have the capacity to safely handle the most serious infectious diseases of humans and animals, such as Ebola and foot and mouth disease.

In a related scientific effort, UC Davis also submitted an application in January to the National Institutes of Health for funding to establish a Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases. The grant proposal, totaling $65 million over five years, would support the work of a coalition of researchers throughout the Western region, and is currently being evaluated for funding by the National Institutes of Health. The Regional Center of Excellence research program will be focused on studies related to the development of vaccines, diagnostic methods and treatments for existing and emerging infectious diseases. The work of these researchers would eventually require support from a National Biocontainment Laboratory. Partners in the proposed Regional Center of Excellence include the University of California, Stanford University, the Scripps Research Institute, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Information about the National Biocontainment Laboratory and Regional Center of Excellence proposals is available online at http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/biodefense/background.lasso