Oct. 15 meeting to discuss proposed biosafety lab

ARGONNE, Ill. (Oct. 9, 2003) — Representatives from the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory will speak and be available to answer questions from the public on plans for a recently-funded facility for research on infectious diseases. The public meeting is planned for Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. at Ashton Place, 341 75th Street, Willowbrook, Ill.

The facility, a $30 million Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, is funded by the National Institutes of Health and will be located on the Argonne site. The laboratory is designed for research to fight emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and microbes that might be used in bioterrorism. The scope of the biosafety laboratory's research will be broad, encompassing emerging diseases such as West Nile Fever and drug-resistant tuberculosis along with influenza, plague and other perennial threats to human health.

The research would develop diagnostics, prevention, therapy and cures of diseases, and would not be involved in developing biological weapons.

The laboratory will support the Midwest Regional Center of Excellence, a consortium of 14 research organizations in the Midwest, coordinated by the University of Chicago and including Argonne, the Mayo Clinic, and medical schools in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Representatives at the meeting will include Olaf Schneewind, professor of molecular genetics and cell biology at the University of Chicago and director of the Midwest Regional Center of Excellence; and Harvey Drucker, associate laboratory director at Argonne.

The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Catherine Foster (630/252-5580 or cfoster@anl.gov) at Argonne.