Setting Improved Standards for Biosafety Excellence

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s highest-level biosafety containment facility — the Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory — is the largest facility of its kind in the world. The facility includes BSL-4 laboratories capable of handling life-threatening and exotic pathogens for which there are no treatments or vaccines, establishing criteria and standards of excellence for biosafety.

Innovative features include:

• Multiple combinations of BSL-3 and BSL-4 modules and shared specimen support space to provide expanded mission critical space and improved flexibility.
• Extensive use of daylighting and exterior views to create open and bright spaces.
• Colocation of formerly disparate groups into one cohesive unit to create a foundation for scientific collaboration.
• Highly flexible casework designed to change as the program changes.
• A campus utility plant and distribution system designed to support the increased infrastructure demands of the facility.