VCU news

By Sathya Achia Abraham

RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 1, 2004) – Virginia Commonwealth University’s medical campus will soon be home to the school’s most advanced and safest laboratory environment for research into emerging infectious diseases, particularly those that could be used as terrorist weapons.

A $150,000 project to upgrade existing lab space to a 700 square-foot, Biosafety Level-3 lab, or “BSL-3” facility, will enable researchers to work safely on severely infectious, but treatable, diseases, the first of which will be tularemia, or rabbit fever.

“The facility will allow for a new type of research to be performed at VCU,” said Dennis Ohman, Ph.D., chair of the department of microbiology and immunology. Ohman is the lead investigator on the first experiment that will be conducted in the lab, the F. tularensis project. “BSL-3 facilities are designed to maximize safety for laboratory workers and for the public, outside the lab.”

Biosafety labs are categorized by degree of protection necessary for personnel, the environment and the community. Facilities can range from BSL-1, where researchers work with well-categorized agents not known to cause disease in healthy humans, to BSL-4, where the deadliest viruses that have no treatment are studied.

Upon completion, the BSL-3 lab must meet strict federal guidelines and will be inspected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ensure that it meets all specifications for safety and containment. In addition, the VCU facility is separated from public areas.

Tularemia is caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis, which occurs naturally in wild rabbits. It is classified as a CDC Category A select agent because it potentially could be used as a biological weapon in a terrorist attack. The disease is fairly rare and early symptoms mimic those of the flu. In the early stages, the infection is readily treated with antibiotics, but can be fatal left untreated.

The upgraded lab “will allow researchers to manipulate this organism without generating aerosols that could lead to accidental infections,” he said. “The facility also represents an important contribution by Virginia to the national defense effort against bioterrorism, and therefore, it will be significant on a national level.”

“Unfortunately, very little is known about F. tularensis compared to other Category A select agents such as the plague, anthrax and small pox,” Ohman said. “In addition to its potential use as a bioterrorist agent, it is important for us to learn more about this organism because from time to time, organisms can adapt, evolve and become serious pathogens.”

Ohman and his research team will examine F. tularensis’ ability to invade healthy human cells and learn how the bacteria’s sugary capsule coat is able to block the human cell’s immune response. Although F. tularensis will be the first organism to be studied, the lab also will serve as a shared facility for research into other bacterial agents in the future.

The BSL-3 laboratory project is supported by the VCU Dean of Medicine Discovery Initiative and the VCU Office of Research at the School of Medicine.