Document text
Principal Investigator: Gary Kobinger
Organization: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
Fiscal Year: 2022
Award: $7,131,815
Funding agency: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Toward maintaining and improving pandemic preparedness, we propose value-added facility upgrades that
better integrate the high-containment communities at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB),
Galveston. UTMB laboratories integrate operations through joint-facility management, usage, and collaborations
that include educating the next generation of research scientists and medical staff. The UTMB community
contains the Robert E. Shope Laboratory (Shope)—the first full-sized BSL-4 facility within a university in the
United States, a structurally separate high-containment Galveston National Laboratory (GNL), and BSL3
laboratories of Mary Moody Northen Pavilion (MMNP). Each facility supports multiple experienced, published,
and governmentally-funded investigators researching pathogens with pandemic potential, as well as facilitating
biomedical research of vaccines and therapeutics. Our corpus of researchers includes 31 experts in one or more
of six out of the seven RNA viruses of focus by NIAID toward Pandemic Preparedness. The requested financial
support will enhance facility capabilities and security within an integrated system of services and operational
functions that support the mandate of the GNL within the UTMB high-containment community. We propose to
enhance integration of systems to provide a comprehensive protection of all UTMB high-containment facilities
against cyberattack, while improving workflow, biosafety, biosecurity, and training capacities through
modernization of specific antiquated high-containment areas that are also essential to pandemic responsivity.
Of priority is to upgrade equipment and supportive infrastructure utilized in high-containment RNA viral research
reaching “end-of-life” (EOL) or “end-of-service” (EOS), prior to experiencing difficulties procuring parts or having
stoppage resulting in lost time, funds, and mitigating preparedness. Additionally, we will remedy specific
infrastructural shortcomings to improve facility operations. Furthermore, as a leader in teaching the future
investigators of high-consequence pathogens, the GNL proposes to upgrade a training area to better reflect the
actual BSL4 environment. We will meet these goals through three Aims: Aim 1: Integrate cybersecurity systems
under the GNL isolated protection, while modernizing safety and security of virtual and physical structures of
UTMB high-containment facilities. Aim 2: Modernize facility and equipment of integrated usage among UTMB’s
research community directly in support of BSL3 and BSL4 RNA research of viruses with high pandemic or
weaponization potential. Aim 3: Implement pandemic preparedness toward effective future strategic response
capacity. Ultimately, modernizations and integrations of systems, operations, and training will better position
UTMB to contribute as a global research leader in discovery and development of solutions against high-
consequence pathogens. This proposal is framed to provide enhanced security and capacities to further support
our roles as collaborator, reference center and repository, institutional model, and trainer toward strategic
implementation of a global pandemic preparedness.
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