Court Keeps Lab Open

University of California, San Francisco, officials got both good and bad news from the California Supreme Court on December 1. The court ordered the university to prepare a new environmental report for a controversial biomedical laboratory (The Scientist, November 28,1988, page 4), which will further delay its full development. But at the same time, the court rejected charges that the lab would endanger the public, and it allowed a small group of scientists to keep working there. The lab currently houses about 20 researchers from the School of Pharmacology, working on vaccines against malaria, schistosomiasis, and other deadly diseases. Not surprisingly, both sides in the dispute are claiming victory. UCSF attorney Ethan Schulman said the decision has “laid to rest, once and for all, the baseless allegation.., that there’s something risky about the university’s research activities.” But opponents of the lab said they managed...

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