Core C: Biosecurity Core

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Project Summary/Abstract The goal of this project is to maintain the Galveston National Laboratory (GNL) at the University of Texas Medical Branch as a part of the NIAID Biodefense Facilities Network to provide access to maximum containment research facilities for NIAID funded investigators, academic collaborators from across the nation and around the world, commercial partners and others as appropriate. This high containment research infrastructure and associated facilities is required to safely and securely conduct research that will facilitate the discovery and development of therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines for dangerous pathogens requiring biocontainment. This unique resource is also a critical resource to educate the next generation of experts in infectious diseases of global health importance. The GNL actively responds to national public health emergencies by providing rapid assistance in diagnostics, sharing of critical reagents, and contributing to the discovery and development of effective medical countermeasures. To achieve this goal, the GNL maintains cores focused on supporting safe and secure operations and maintenance of maximum containment research facilities and to provide unique resources and tools to investigators working in biocontainment to allow them to rapidly, safely and securely address emerging infectious diseases and bioterrorism threats. Unique capabilities include the ability to generate and quantify aerosol challenges of laboratory animals from mice to non-human primates, access to arthropod vector colonies to support zoonotic disease transmission studies, and state-of-the-art imaging capabilities to visualize findings, among many others. Working together, GNL teams conduct basic and applied research that can transition original discoveries from concept to final product development, validation and licensure.