Colorado State funded for bioterrorism data
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Researchers at Colorado State University have long studied the plague, smallpox, and other deadly, naturally occurring viruses. Now they are studying how to combat those that are manmade.
"Bioterrorists didn't invent these viruses," said Tony Frank, the vice president for research and information technology at Colorado State. "These are things that were already in our research portfolio. What's changed is how they're introduced."
Colorado State has focused its research on protecting the nation's human population and economically important plant and animal resources. Since the advent of bioterrorism, the urgency of that work has increased dramatically.
The university was awarded one of 11 grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, to form the nation's "backbone of biodefense." Colorado State is building one of nine regional biocontainment labs.
The Boston University Medical Center was awarded federal funds to build one of two national biocontainment labs, which will be more secure, and which will handle potentially deadly agents for which no vaccine exists.
At Colorado State, a $22.1 million grant will fund a 33,850-square-foot laboratory to research infectious diseases. The lab will complement similar research underway at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division of vector-borne infectious diseases lab in Fort Collins, and the university's bioenvironmental hazards research building and its arthropod-borne and infectious diseases laboratory.
Under study at the the university's Foothills Research Campus are West Nile virus, SARS, antibody-resistant tuberculosis, yellow fever, dengue, and plague antavirus.
The siting of the biocontainment labs was based largely on the existence of scientific and technical resources in a community, according to the national institute.
In Boston, opponents have pledged to block a facility. They argue that a densely populated area is no place to experiment on anthrax, smallpox, the plague, and other lethal agents.
The regional biocontainment labs, such as the one being built in Fort Collins, are Biosafety Level 3 labs, while the national labs are Level 4. Colorado State's Level 3 lab is within a few hundred feet of a housing subdivision. The proposed Boston facility would be on the edge of the South End.
The Colorado State facility will operate in conjunction with the university's Rocky Mountain Institute for Biosecurity Research, which integrates the university's research expertise in infectious diseases, plant and animal biological agents, and atmospheric science under one umbrella organization.
"Many land grant universities are organized in an interdisciplinary fashion," said Hank Gardner, the institute's director. "We look at all aspects of a threat. All that has changed with bioterrorism is intention, from unintentional introduction to intentional."
Colorado State researchers study not only threats to humans, but also to economically important plants and animals.
"Terrorists are known to attack by undermining our economic structure," Gardner said. "We investigate agents that can be used to diminish our food supply."
The Bush administration wants to aggressively encourage the commercial development of vaccines and drugs to combat bioterrorism. Federal legislation called the BioShield Act proposes to make $5.6 billion available through 2013 to buy drugs, devices, and biological products to treat, identify, and prevent bioterrorist attacks. The bill has passed the House and awaits action in the Senate.
"The government has shown an interest in building a bridge from research to the marketplace," Frank said. "That will be our emphasis with this grant."
Colorado State has hired Paul Hudnut, a former pharmaceutical company vice president, to build that bridge.
"Having public researchers and private companies work side by side is a model that makes a lot of sense," said Hudnut, who was appointed director of venture development for the project. "It will make the process more efficient and move things to market more quickly."
