Pandemic Preparedness: Biocontainment Facility Upgrade and Integration at UTMB/Galveston National Laboratory

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Toward maintaining and improving pandemic preparedness, we propose value-added facility upgrades that better integrate the high-containment communities at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston. UTMB laboratories integrate operations through joint-facility management, usage, and collaborations that include educating the next generation of research scientists and medical staff. The UTMB community contains the Robert E. Shope Laboratory (Shope)—the first full-sized BSL-4 facility within a university in the United States, a structurally separate high-containment Galveston National Laboratory (GNL), and BSL3 laboratories of Mary Moody Northen Pavilion (MMNP). Each facility supports multiple experienced, published, and governmentally-funded investigators researching pathogens with pandemic potential, as well as facilitating biomedical research of vaccines and therapeutics. Our corpus of researchers includes 31 experts in one or more of six out of the seven RNA viruses of focus by NIAID toward Pandemic Preparedness. The requested financial support will enhance facility capabilities and security within an integrated system of services and operational functions that support the mandate of the GNL within the UTMB high-containment community. We propose to enhance integration of systems to provide a comprehensive protection of all UTMB high-containment facilities against cyberattack, while improving workflow, biosafety, biosecurity, and training capacities through modernization of specific antiquated high-containment areas that are also essential to pandemic responsivity. Of priority is to upgrade equipment and supportive infrastructure utilized in high-containment RNA viral research reaching “end-of-life” (EOL) or “end-of-service” (EOS), prior to experiencing difficulties procuring parts or having stoppage resulting in lost time, funds, and mitigating preparedness. Additionally, we will remedy specific infrastructural shortcomings to improve facility operations. Furthermore, as a leader in teaching the future investigators of high-consequence pathogens, the GNL proposes to upgrade a training area to better reflect the actual BSL4 environment. We will meet these goals through three Aims: Aim 1: Integrate cybersecurity systems under the GNL isolated protection, while modernizing safety and security of virtual and physical structures of UTMB high-containment facilities. Aim 2: Modernize facility and equipment of integrated usage among UTMB’s research community directly in support of BSL3 and BSL4 RNA research of viruses with high pandemic or weaponization potential. Aim 3: Implement pandemic preparedness toward effective future strategic response capacity. Ultimately, modernizations and integrations of systems, operations, and training will better position UTMB to contribute as a global research leader in discovery and development of solutions against high- consequence pathogens. This proposal is framed to provide enhanced security and capacities to further support our roles as collaborator, reference center and repository, institutional model, and trainer toward strategic implementation of a global pandemic preparedness.