Tufts Unveils Most Recent Addition to Nation's Plan for 13 Regional Biosafety Laboratories

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Tufts University has unveiled the $33 million New England Regional Biosafety Laboratory (NE-RBL). Located on a 5-acre site in North Grafton, Massachusetts, the 41,000-square-foot building will allow researchers to develop new diagnostic tools, therapies and vaccines for infectious diseases. Developed through Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, the project has been tracked by Industrial Info Resources' Pharmaceutical Tracker - Online Database since 2005. The NE-RBL is one of 13 such regional laboratories, representing a total investment of nearly $500 million dollars, commissioned by the National Institutes of Health in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Click on image at right for a list of biosafety laboratories in the U.S.

Designed by Flad Architects (Madison, Wisconsin), the NE-RBL contains 650 square feet of Biosafety Level-2 space and 8,500 square feet of Biosafety Level-3 space for zoonotic disease research. It also houses an Animal Biosafety Level-3 vivarium, aerobiology suite and an insectary. In addition to researchers from Tufts, the NE-RBL is available as a regional resource to investigators from other academic institutions and the private sector in New England and nationwide.

Gilbane (Boston, Massachusetts) constructed the building, which serves as the anchor tenant of the Cummings School's Grafton Science Park. The 100-acre build-to-suit area can accommodate up to 702,000 square feet of commercial life science, medical devices and medical-related space.

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