Behind Steel Doors: High Containment Laboratories — TXBioBytes Podcast Episode 011

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Developing vaccines and therapies to successfully treat some of the world’s deadliest diseases for which there are no known treatments or vaccines requires the safest laboratory in the world in which to study them. Texas Biomedical Research Institute is home to one of only six such labs in North America and the only operational BSL-4 lab owned by a private institution.

Designed for maximum containment, BSL-4 labs offer a safe setting for scientists and the surrounding environment. This unique resource has allowed scientists in Texas Biomed’s Department of Virology and Immunology to become world leaders in the fight against emerging diseases and bioterror agents, such as SARS, Anthrax, Ebola virus and more.

Our Biosafety Level 3 lab works on contagious pathogens that are treatable, but contagious. Right now, scientists are focusing on findings new treatments and vaccines for Mycobacterium tuberulosois (M.tb) which causes tuberculosis, one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases.