After years of neighborhood battles, Boston University has won approval to conduct biosafety level 4 research. In layman's terms, that means they can now study the world's deadliest pathogens at the university’s National Emerging Infectious Disease Lab on the medical school’s South End campus.
Rows of blue and white protective lab suits hang in the changing room of a simulation of Boston University’s biosafety level 4 lab, also known as BSL-4. The real lab is in an inner sanctum of the building with 12-inch thick walls and 14-inch heavily fortified concrete flooring designed to withstand an earthquake.
Coiled air hoses hang from the ceiling. Microbiologist Elke Muhlberger grabs one to demonstrate how it works. Pointing to a socket on the waist of the suit, she takes the end of the hose and snaps it in. Air immediately starts hissing into the suit.
“In order to get air, to breathe, you have to connect the suit to these air hoses right here.” Mulhberger said.
Air is constantly being pumped into the suits with a ventilation panel in the back.
Muhlberger adds that it gets very dry inside these suits and after working for 4 hours, it’s easy to get dehydrated.
Once researchers are suited up, they will access the chemical shower room using an iris scan. The door on the other side leads to the lab and it won’t open unless the entry to the chemical shower is completely sealed shut. Inside the lab, cameras monitor everything, and researchers will never be allowed to work alone.
Muhlberger came to BU from Germany nine years ago, where she worked at the BSL-4 lab at the Phillips University of Marburg. She arrived under the impression that she would soon be working on Ebola pathogens in a BSL-4 lab at NEIDL. But all of that stalled when opponents filed federal and state lawsuits to stop the lab from opening.
“I was very surprised that there's so much mistrust of science here. I mean, Boston is this city of science. But I completely understand on the surface. And I think that communication didn’t go quite well at the very beginning,” she said. “If people have concerns, you have to take this seriously. And so, I'm very empathetic. But on the other hand, I know that there is no real reason to be concerned about this.”
BU’s lab was permitted to study level 2 pathogens five years ago, and since January 2014, scientists there have been studying level 3 pathogens, like tuberculosis and measles. There are currently 10 BSL-4 labs in the U.S., including Boston, which puts the city on the map for innovation in treating and curing emerging diseases, says NEIDL Director Ron Corley.
“Emerging infectious diseases are an international public health crisis,” said Corley. “I want to reach out to the people who do structural biology at the building next door. I want to reach out to the people who do stem cell biology and understand how to turn the power of stem cell biology into creating small organs which are going to be working. I want to be able to reach out to chemists and engineers. Where can you do that? You do that at a research university. So, from my view this is a perfect place for a facility.”
Not perfect at all, says Mary Crotty of the Massachusetts Nurses Association and longtime opponent of the BSL-4 lab.
“We consider it to be environmental racism on the part of Boston University, and we're really appalled by the fact that the lab got built and that it's going forward,” Crotty said. “And it's the residents of Roxbury that are being asked to assume all of the risk and no benefit.”
Crotty also cites a history of problems with other CDC laboratories that underreported incidents of poor lab safety practices, the most publicized one involving Ebola exposure at a lab in Atlanta in 2014. She says that the Boston Public Health Commission doesn't have the expertise to be evaluating level 4 projects.
“There are members of our coalition who still intend to protest. So, you know, we like to say it's not over until it's over.” Crotty said.
The lab is already approved to start work on one Ebola project and each project moving forward will require institutional review, as well as approval from the Boston Public Health Commission.
As for Ron Corley, he’s excited to finally get the ball rolling and to start Ebola research as soon as this spring. He’s also excited about the potential for bringing in new talent.
“It allows us to kind of build a portfolio of pathogen studies across the different areas and to do it safely,” he said.
