Welcome to RBL Web site
Welcome to the
official Web site of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s (UTHSC)
regional biocontainment laboratory (RBL). In 2003, UTHSC was awarded nearly $18
million in federal funding from the National Institutes of Allergy and
Infectious Disease (NIAID) to be used to build a laboratory on the UT-Baptist
Research Park site for biomedical and biodefense research and research training.
The UTHSC RBL is one of 13 NIAID funded Regional Biocontainment Laboratories in the country.
The primary purpose of
the research conducted at the RBL will be to develop new drugs, vaccines, and
diagnostics to protect the general population from infectious diseases and
bioterrorism. One of 13 NIAID funded regional biocontainment labs in the
country; the UTHSC RBL will be limited to research requiring
Biosafety Level 3
(BSL-3) containment as defined by the Centers for Disease Control. BSL-3
facilities are designed to safely and effectively study contagious materials.
Scientists at the UT RBL will investigate: multi-drug resistant tuberculosis,
tularemia, streptococci, cholera, and Chlamydia infections. Other pathogens will
be added as the facility and faculty expand.
We are proud to have
been selected as a site to develop vaccines for infectious diseases that pose a
serious health threat to humanity. We invite you to learn more about the
opportunities for biomedical advancement the RBL will afford UT Health Science
Center researchers, as well as investigators from St. Jude Children’s Research
Hospital and the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center, Memphis. An additional bonus
is that the RBL will be a critical and unique resource for the Memphis Bioworks
Foundation’s effort to attract new biomedical businesses to the Memphis area.
We hope you share our enthusiasm for the potential the RBL will have for
improving prevention, intervention and therapy of infectious diseases all over
the world.
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Gerald I. Byrne, PhD
Director, Regional Biocontainment Laboratory
University of Tennessee Health Science Center |
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