NIH holding BU biolab hearing in Boston

By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff

A blue-ribbon panel investigating the safety of a controversial research laboratory being built by Boston University will hold a public meeting next week on Beacon Hill.

The panel, commissioned by the director of the National Institutes of Health, will meet from 9 a.m. till noon May 16 in Gardner Auditorium at the State House. Members of the public will be able to address the scientists. A spokesman for the NIH, which is underwriting much of the cost of the South End lab, said members of the public do not have to register in advance of the meeting and are asked to limit their comments to three minutes. Citizens may also submit written comments.

The blue-ribbon panel was convened after the National Research Council, an independent board of scientists, issued a report in November sharply critical of NIH's earlier safety reviews of the BU project.