BSL-3 Laboratory

The Center for Global Infectious Disease Research houses a Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory. This facility allows our researchers to work on microbes and infectious agents that can cause serious or potentially lethal disease through inhalation, such as yellow fever, West Nile virus, chikungunya, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. Currently, the facility only houses M. tuberculosis.

The BSL-3 facility is equipped with a number of safeguards designed to protect laboratory personnel, as well as the surrounding environment and community. Windows are sealed, and a special ventilation system forces air to flow from the "clean" areas of the lab to the areas where infectious agents are handled. Our researchers enter the facility through two sets of self-closing doors wearing personal protective equipment (“moon suits”). Once inside the BSL-3, their work with the microbes is conducted within a biological safety cabinet, which is an enclosed, ventilated laboratory workspace specifically designed for working safely with materials contaminated with (or potentially contaminated with) dangerous pathogens. The air in the facility is extensively filter-sterilized, and only sterilized materials leave the facility.

Access to the BSL-3 laboratory is restricted and controlled at all times and compliant with all state and federal government safety codes.

For more information about using the BSL-3 laboratory, contact Dr. Christoph Grundner.