Practices Core

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PRACTICES CORE ABSTRACT: The Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL) within the Center for Vaccine Research (CVR) at the University of Pittsburgh is the biosafety level-3 (BSL-3) hub for infection biology. The mission of the RBL is threefold, to work on pathogen emergence, evolution and host-to-host transmission, to study the pathogenesis of emerging infectious diseases and to accelerate pre-clinical development of novel interventions and medical countermeasures for pandemic preparedness and biodefense. Our vision is to be a globally recognized, highly- collaborative, creative and forward-facing team of infection biologists who are poised to respond to emerging biological threats both at the national and international level. The entire facility is registered with the Division of Select Agents and Toxins (DSAT). It brings together infection biologists and clinicians from a variety of disciplines who require BSL-3 and animal (A)BSL-3 facilities for their wide ranging viral and bacterial research programs. Biocontainment work is operationally complex, infrastructure-dense, and comprehensively regulated. Running BSL-3 laboratories safely, securely and successfully demands having a well-organized and highly integrated team of administrators, scientists, biosafety/biosecurity professionals, engineers/facilities staff and veterinarians/zootechnical staff. This is especially important in multi-pathogen, multi-user research facilities that study standard and select agent BSL-3 pathogens. The Practices Core will support all the basic functions of the RBL enabling scientific programs to be rigorously managed and ensuring overall data integrity for reproducible outcomes. It will provide the requisite theoretical and practical trainings to onboard new RBL Investigators and their teams who wish to work in BSL-3 and ABSL-3 biocontainment. It will provide biosafety and biosecurity support and guarantee the facility meets all current compliance regulations for Tier 1 select agent registered laboratories. Provision of technical and support for the RBL in Pittsburgh will ensure we are ready to respond to any national response to a range of emerging infectious diseases in the event of another pandemic or bioterrorism attack. Supporting this cohort of BSL-3 scientists, who can pivot to work on new pathogens in an emergency, is certain to pay dividends.