Mason Receives $25 Million for Construction of a Regional Biocontainment Laboratory
In September, Mason’s National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases received the largest research award in the university’s history to help build a regional biocontainment laboratory at the Prince William Campus. The $25 million award came from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) as part of its Regional Biocontainment Laboratories Construction Program Initiative.
In 2002, a panel of experts commissioned by NIAID, part of the National Institutes of Health, cited a lack of biosafety level-3 and level-4 laboratories in the United States as a significant barrier to progress in biodefense research. Mason’s regional biocontainment laboratory, a biosafety level-3 facility, will play a major role in helping the country defend against the threat of bioterrorism.
“It is truly an honor for George Mason to receive this highly competitive award. I am confident that we will fulfill the trust placed in us by the federal government to meet this critical national defense need,” says university president Alan Merten. “This winning proposal is a product of a highly competent and dedicated team of scientists and administrators. The biomedical research produced in this facility will result from the same model.”
Research conducted in the 83,154-square-foot facility will focus on developing techniques and products to detect, diagnose, prevent, and treat infectious diseases that the U.S. government considers to be potential bioterror threats, such as anthrax, tularemia, and the plague, as well as on emerging infectious diseases, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (also known as SARS) and West Nile virus, and influenza.
“This award to George Mason not only recognizes its stature as a research center, but it also places the university among the elite institutions in the United States conducting this level of biodefense research,” says Sean T. Connaughton, JD ’92, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. “The county’s partnership with the university has led to many new investments and jobs in Prince William County, and this facility is part of the continued growth of the county as a biotech community.”
The project will cost approximately $42 million. In addition to the $25 million NIAID award, the university will provide an estimated $15.3 million in matching funds, and Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner has committed $2.5 million on behalf of the commonwealth for land acquisition.
“I have challenged our public colleges and universities to take bold steps in the area of research and development, and I am extremely pleased that George Mason has landed this significant [National Institutes of Health] grant,” Warner says. “I see an almost unlimited potential for George Mason in leveraging this region’s concentration of agencies and companies involved in military and homeland security issues.”
