Work Progresses on Fort Detrick Biodefense Lab

Construction of a Homeland Security Department biological defense laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., is 60 percent complete and is expected to be finished by the end of 2008, the Frederick News-Post reported Sunday (see GSN, July 31, 2006).

Laboratory operations are not expected to begin until late next year at the $143 million National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, which is among a number of facilities that would constitute the National Interagency Biodefense Campus.

The Homeland Security facility is expected to house 120 workers, roughly 20,000 square feet of Biosafety Level 3 laboratory space and about 10,000 square feet of Biosafety Level 4 space.

Level 4 facilities conduct research on potentially lethal diseases that can go airborne and for which there are no treatments or vaccines.

Once construction is finished, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to need several months to certify that the NBACC laboratories are ready for operations, the News-Post reported.  Administrative offices would open earlier.

Facility researchers are now housed at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick.  Their responsibilities include conducting forensic analyses of biological incident sites, examining present and potential threats and producing a biological terrorism threat assessment every two years (Justin Palk, Frederick News-Post, Jan. 27).

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