West coast BSL competition heats up

The University of California (UC) is asking the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to be ready to consider alternate sites for a biosafety lab the school had hoped to build on the UC Davis campus. NIH has $275 million in federal funding to spend on two new Biosafety Level-4 facilities, which the agency wants to build in the next five years and would like at least one of them to be located on the West Coast. Davis was a strong contender, but community opposition has forced UC officials to seek alternate sites."UC Davis still considers the campus site to be a strength of our proposal," wrote UC associate vice chancellor for research administration, Lynne Chronister, in a recent letter to NIH. "We also understand that NIH reviewers will consider only the site proposed. However, assuming that our proposal receives high scientific merit, and if it is determined that one of the [alternate] sites…adds value to the program, we would like to discuss that possibility with you during negotiation."Though UC hasn't given up hope on the Davis site, its chances of landing $150 million in federal aid for a new top-security lab in downtown Davis seem to have vanished along with a four-pound rhesus monkey, which escaped from the California National Primate Research Center on February 13.Nothing was found of the fugitive gray-and-tan female monkey except some fur in a drain. But the incident coalesced local community opposition, already roused by UC's plans to research dangerous pathogens on the Davis campus. The clamor from California has stimulated hope by a competitor for the BSL lab grant, Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU)."I think that the NIH has been burned before and is very sensitive to the issue of local support. That, in my opinion, is going to be an important part of the decision," said Jay Nelson, principal investigator on the Oregon school's bid and director of vaccine research there. "Not recognizing the importance of community approval in this process is a big mistake."UC and OHSU are the only Western schools known to be bidding on the BSL-4 money. OHSU plans to build on a site in Hillsboro, a Portland suburb that already houses the school's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, and the Oregon National Primate Center.Portland is desperate for the jobs the national laboratory would bring, making the concerned citizens at town meetings relatively easy to mollify."One person at the first meeting said, "why does this building have to be near a populated place?' and I explained to him that it's pretty hard to recruit scientists to the middle of the Bonneville Flats," Nelson said.The calm in Oregon stands in sharp contrast to the continued furor in California. Davis Mayor Susie Boyd personally backs UC's bid to build a BSL-4 lab in her town. But as an elected official, she formally bows to local sentiment, which is strongly against the lab. "The communication I am getting on this issue is about 50–to–one in opposition," Boyd said.Within weeks of the monkey's escape, the Davis City Council abandoned its original neutral stance, voting unanimously against UC's plan. Now UC is asking NIH to be prepared to negotiate alternate sites for the lab, if the locals remain hostile.Among those sites are decommissioned military bases in Sacramento County, the City of West Sacramento and Yuba County. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Letter to the Editor: 09 April 2003We strongly disagree with Peg Brickley's statement that UC Davis's chances to locate the National Biocontainment Laboratory on campus have "vanished." Our proposal, along with others, is currently being reviewed by the NIH panel. During this time, we're conducting a series of community meetings on campus and with Davis civic groups to inform people about the plans for the research, facility design and safety features of the proposed laboratory on our campus. We believe that the campus site identified in our proposal is the best option to maximize the use of existing infrastructure and expertise at UC Davis, including the Schools of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Division of Biological Sciences, State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, and National Primate Center. These features enhance opportunities for research collaborations which translate to more research output per dollar invested in the laboratory. The current outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome certainly illustrates the need for such public health research facilities.We have received inquiries from other regional governments suggesting alternatives to the on-campus site. While we think that the campus location is a strong aspect of our application, we're willing to listen to those suggestions to see if any of them might add value to our proposal. If our proposal is highly ranked in the initial round of review, we'll be prepared to discuss those alternative sites with the NIH, if required.For more information, please refer to our website (http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/biosafety/).Virginia S. Hinshaw (vshinshaw@ucdavis.edu)Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, University of California, Davis._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

West coast BSL competition heats up

Oregon and California rivals vie for biocontainment lab grant, one facing strong local opposition.

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of