Memphis is already known as a regional medical research and hospital center. Soon, it will also be one of nine cities across the country armed with the tools to help fight bioterrorism and the spread of infectious diseases.

Grants and matching funds totaling $25 million will fund the new Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL) and establish the Mid-South Center for Biodefense and Security on the campus of the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center.

The RBLs will be part of a major National Institutes of Health effort aimed at combating infectious diseases and helping to protect the country in case of a bioterrorist attack or a major biological threat such as an avian flu pandemic. U.T. Health Sciences Center researchers applied for the competitive grant and won it in 2003, says the center’s director Malak Kotb. The laboratory is to be built by 2008 in the heart of the city’s downtown medical community.

A side benefit for Memphis will be the biotech companies—and high-paying jobs—that are typically drawn to these kinds of federal research centers. The labs are built to safely research the dangerous viruses and microorganisms at the root of illnesses like the avian flu and the West Nile virus—or compounds that might be used in bioterrorism—and to develop counter measures against them.

That makes them a perfect match for private companies interested in creating new vaccines or diagnostic equipment that treat infectious diseases, says Memphis Bioworks CEO Steven Bares.

“This lab means they will be able to learn something new here that they can’t learn anywhere else,” Bares says.

“This will be another arrow in the quiver of all the biotech activity happening here.”

The Memphis lab also will provide researchers and private companies with access to some unique laboratory tools, such as specially bred research mice and high-tech sensors—designed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory—that detects matter on the nano level and translates it into digital information, Kotb says.

“This is a chance for our region to be in the forefront of an emerging industry,” Kotb says. “It will be a very unique center.”

photo provided by Niaid Biodefense Research