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June 11, 2003

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

“New Lab Here Would Study Monkeypox”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (www.stltoday.com) (06/10/03) P. A10; Hesman, Tina

Researchers from St. Louis University (SLU), Washington University in St. Louis, and Case Western University in Cleveland are seeking a National Institutes of Health grant to build a biosafety level three facility at SLU.  The lab would have the second-highest level of protection from dangerous organisms; level four labs have the most protection.  According to Robert Webster, associate provost for research at the SLU Health Sciences Center, SLU has three level three labs already, while Washington University has nine; however, none of the labs have “select agents,” which are bacteria, viruses, or toxins that could be used as possible bioterror weapons.  The new facility, which would be called the Midwest Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, would research vaccines and drugs to fight select agents that could be spread by natural or intentional means, such as anthrax, plague-causing bacteria, or monkeypox.