The formal groundbreaking ceremony, to be held in William C. Levin Hall on the UTMB campus, marks the beginning of the construction phase of the Galveston National Laboratory. The project has been under design since UTMB received the $110 million construction grant from National Institutes of Health in October 2003.
A scientific symposium will follow featuring international leaders in the field of biodefense and emerging infectious diseases. The symposium will also be held at Levin Hall on the UTMB campus.
"The Galveston National Laboratory (GNL) is the first complex of its size and scope undertaken in the United States on an academic campus," said Dr. Stanley M. Lemon, director of UTMB's Institute for Human Infections and Immunity.
"This facility will make it possible to accelerate important scientific work to develop new vaccines, diagnostics and treatments for diseases like anthrax, plague, hemorrhagic fevers, typhus, West Nile fever, SARS, influenza and drug-resistant tuberculosis," he said.
Once completed, the six-story structure will house more than 12,000 square feet of maximum-containment biosafety level 4 (BSL4) laboratories where researchers from UTMB and other institutions will safely study disease-causing viruses and bacteria that could emerge naturally or be used by bioterrorists. A total 83,000 square feet of research space will also incorporate BSL2 and BSL3 labs.
The GNL is expected to be completed in June 2008 at a cost of about $167 million.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health will join Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchis
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Contact: Tom Curtis
tcurtis@utmb.edu
409-772-2455
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
5-Aug-2005