Share thisUniversity of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is unique among the health science centers in the state of Texas in that its research, academic, and comprehensive clinical programs and facilities operate under a single administration. This integration of scientific investigation, education, and patient care provides consistency in goal setting and administrative support for UTMB’s commitment to excellence and ethical integrity in all aspects of its mission, which is to provide scholarly teaching, innovative scientific investigation, and state-of-the-art patient care in a learning environment. UTMB is home to the first full-suit BSL-4 laboratory, the Robert E. Shope, MD Laboratory, located on an academic campus in the United States. To enhance this dedication and expertise, UTMB was awarded one of two National Biocontainment Laboratories that enable research and testing of biological agents in support of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) research.
As seen in Photo 1, the Galveston National Laboratory(GNL)is an eight-story, 186,267 gross square feet high-rise building that is designed to assist national, state, and local public health efforts in the event of a naturally occurring infectious disease or bioterrorism emergency, as well as provide scientific investigators with a state of-the-art biocontainment research facility including BSL-4, Enhanced BSL-3, BSL-3, BSL-2 laboratories and associated BSL-4, BSL-3 animal and animal support spaces. Photo 2 provides an inside view of a BSL-4 laboratory facing biological safety cabinet. This project allows UTMB, the UT System, and the State of Texas, to remain leaders in the national effort to develop improved diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics to identify, prevent, treat, or otherwise control a number of important emerging human infectious diseases and potential agents of bioterrorism. This article will present the design guidelines of the laboratory building, provide an overview of the vivarium floor, and discuss the ideas behind the security and natural disaster planning.
Building Design Guidelines
Biocontainment laboratories are technically complex and advanced facilities incorporating proven construction and engineering technologies. They must ensure a functional, flexible, and safe laboratory environment that will accomplish the mission of the facility. The design, construction, and engineering support systems of GNL must be integrated to achieve the goal of providing a safe environment for both the researchers and the outside environment. The design of the BSL-2, enhanced BSL-3, BSL-3 and BSL-4 laboratories was based on the recommendations and requirements of the 4th edition Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL), CDC/NIH Publication No. 93-8395, the National Institutes of Health Spring 2003 edition NIH Design Policies and Guidelines Animal Research Facilities, and the latest edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, published by the National Research Council.
The design of the laboratories utilizes a laboratory module of 10’-8” which allows for a customized building configuration that affords planning flexibility and efficiency for laboratory and laboratory-support spaces. This module provides at least 5’-0”to 5’-8” aisle clearance in the back-to-back work configuration. To maintain the established laboratory module throughout the building, the animal floors have been designed with a modified laboratory module of 16’-0”, one and a half the size of the typical laboratory module. The design team concluded that this system provides the most economical and flexible laboratory design that embraces all the building components. It provides mechanical systems flexibility and safety in the arrangement of equipment, filters, exhaust and intake locations. It also provides a more compatible structural system which delivers a rigid, cast-in-place concrete superstructure and a secure exterior building envelope that can mitigate both the effects of potential Category 5 hurricanes (155 mph wind speed) and other security requirements. To provide additional protection for some of the more critical areas of the building, like the high containment BSL-4 laboratories and BSL-4 animal laboratories, precast concrete exterior wall panels with cast-in-place concrete walls around the floor form a “box-in-a-box” configuration.