Kakaako to get new biosafety facility
UH gets infusion of funds to proceed with a state-of-the-art laboratory
STORY SUMMARY »
An additional $12.5 million has been approved to build a $47.5 million biocontainment laboratory next to the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Kakaako.
Researchers will work with exotic bugs and animals in the high-security biosafety facility, which will help with early warning of lethal infectious diseases threatening Hawaii and the Pacific.
Plans for the University of Hawaii facility had stalled because funds available were not enough to build the kind of laboratory needed, said Dr. Duane Gubler, director of the school's Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases and chairman of the Department of Tropical Medicine and Medical Microbiology.
FULL STORY »
The University of Hawaii is getting more money and a firm commitment from the National Institutes of Health to go ahead with a $47.5 million biocontainment laboratory to study infectious diseases, said Dr. Duane Gubler.
Although primarily for research, the laboratory also will be used for early-warning disease detection, Gubler said. "It will allow us to assay systems and conduct research using animals. ... We really can't do drug discovery and vaccine research without animal capability," he said.
Gubler directs the Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the medical school and chairs the Department of Tropical Medicine and Medical Microbiology.
The state-of-the-art biosafety level 3 facility will be built near the new John A. Burns School of Medicine at Kakaako.
Strict standards are required for a level 3 facility, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says can handle "indigenous or exotic agents which may cause serious or potentially lethal disease."
UH had $37.5 million in state and federal funds for the project, but increased costs "shrunk the laboratory to the point where we were uncertain whether it would be big enough to be of value," Gubler said in a recent interview.
He said UH applied to NIH for supplemental funding, and the agency is providing another $7.5 million, which UH will match with $2.5 million.
A team from NIH recently met here with UH researchers and administrative officials and "were very happy with what they found," Gubler said.
In another development to improve early detection and response to infectious diseases, a CDC senior management official will begin working here in May, using temporary office space in the Asia-Pacific Institute, Gubler said.
The CDC official will start a program to manage CDC's cooperative agreements with the state Department of Health and with Pacific territories, Gubler said. Millions of dollars are involved in the agreements, now managed out of Atlanta, he noted.
Gubler recently was in Washington, D.C., talking with CDC officials about the Hawaii office.
He suggested a CDC-and-Hawaii partnership to develop a more effective early warning and response system for infectious diseases in the Pacific and Asia.
The CDC office here "will probably mean Hawaii will be a lot higher on the priority list," he said. "The CDC recognizes the need to have more activity, a stronger presence in the Asia-Pacific region. This is the first step."
Eventually it could mean some jobs, he said. "But the real benefit to Hawaii will be having CDC expertise and presence here. That will give us access to a lot of expertise back in Atlanta that is more difficult to get right now."
U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye said the Hawaii CDC official will meet with state Health Director Chiyome Fukino to discuss collaborative activities to improve public health in Hawaii and the Pacific.
A major concern, Inouye said, is health issues related to the unrestricted travel of Pacific islanders to Hawaii under the Compact of Free Association Act without pre-immigration health screenings.
Gubler has been going back and forth to Singapore where he is leading a partnership on infectious diseases between Duke University, the National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School and the UH medical school.
He still heads the Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases but said recruitment is under way for a new Tropical Medicine and Medical Microbiology Department chairman who will also direct the regional biosafety laboratory.
He said UH has given the infectious-disease program five positions that were abolished a few years ago, and new faculty is being hired.
Faculty also is being hired and a new laboratory being built for the Singapore program, which "will be very proactive in identifying those exotic bugs that have potential to jump from animals to humans" and spread around the world, Gubler said.
UH gets infusion of funds to proceed with a state-of-the-art biosafety facility
By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com
The University of Hawaii is getting more money and a firm commitment from the National Institutes of Health to go ahead with a $47.5 million biocontainment laboratory to study infectious diseases, said Dr. Duane Gubler.
Although primarily for research, the laboratory also will be used for early-warning disease detection, Gubler said. "It will allow us to assay systems and conduct research using animals. ... We really can't do drug discovery and vaccine research without animal capability," he said.
Gubler directs the Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the medical school and chairs the Department of Tropical Medicine and Medical Microbiology.
The state-of-the-art biosafety level 3 facility will be built near the new John A. Burns School of Medicine at Kakaako.
Strict standards are required for a level 3 facility, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says can handle "indigenous or exotic agents which may cause serious or potentially lethal disease."
UH had $37.5 million in state and federal funds for the project, but increased costs "shrunk the laboratory to the point where we were uncertain whether it would be big enough to be of value," Gubler said in a recent interview.
He said UH applied to NIH for supplemental funding, and the agency is providing another $7.5 million, which UH will match with $2.5 million.
A team from NIH recently met here with UH researchers and administrative officials and "were very happy with what they found," Gubler said.
In another development to improve early detection and response to infectious diseases, a CDC senior management official will begin working here in May, using temporary office space in the Asia-Pacific Institute, Gubler said.
The CDC official will start a program to manage CDC's cooperative agreements with the state Department of Health and with Pacific territories, Gubler said. Millions of dollars are involved in the agreements, now managed out of Atlanta, he noted.
Gubler recently was in Washington, D.C., talking with CDC officials about the Hawaii office.
He suggested a CDC-and-Hawaii partnership to develop a more effective early warning and response system for infectious diseases in the Pacific and Asia.
The CDC office here "will probably mean Hawaii will be a lot higher on the priority list," he said. "The CDC recognizes the need to have more activity, a stronger presence in the Asia-Pacific region. This is the first step."
Eventually it could mean some jobs, he said. "But the real benefit to Hawaii will be having CDC expertise and presence here. That will give us access to a lot of expertise back in Atlanta that is more difficult to get right now."
U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye said the Hawaii CDC official will meet with state Health Director Chiyome Fukino to discuss collaborative activities to improve public health in Hawaii and the Pacific.
A major concern, Inouye said, is health issues related to the unrestricted travel of Pacific islanders to Hawaii under the Compact of Free Association Act without pre-immigration health screenings.
Gubler has been going back and forth to Singapore where he is leading a partnership on infectious diseases between Duke University, the National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School and the UH medical school.
He still heads the Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases but said recruitment is under way for a new Tropical Medicine and Medical Microbiology Department chairman who will also direct the regional biosafety laboratory.
He said UH has given the infectious-disease program five positions that were abolished a few years ago, and new faculty is being hired.
Faculty also is being hired and a new laboratory being built for the Singapore program, which "will be very proactive in identifying those exotic bugs that have potential to jump from animals to humans" and spread around the world, Gubler said.
