AnalysisFive states make the finalist list for national biolab

Georgia has the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), North Carolina is home to the Research Triangle Park, and New York has its aging Plum Island lab. San Antonio boasts about the only privately operated, high-security research lab in the country, while Mississippi can claim the congressman who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security. We wrote last Friday that Kansas may soon be able to boast that it, too, is home to a major biolab, as it is one of the five finalists in the fiercly competitive bid to be the location of DHS-sponsored $450 million National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility (which, by the way, aims to replace the aging Plum Island facility).

Lawrence, Kansas’s Journal-World’s Christine Metzwrites that Kansas officials, while admitting that the other four states in the race hold good cards, say the state is still in the game with Kansas State University’s Biosecurity Research Institute and National Agricultural Biosecurity Center. The state also makes up part of the animal health corridor that includes more than 120 animal health organizations. “These are all excellent consortiums that have been assembled,” said Ron Trewyn, vice provost of research and dean of the graduate school at K-State in Manhattan. “I guess I still believe with our animal health and livestock facilities and the animal health corridor, I really believe we have the best (site) in the country.”

Last week DHS announced that five states still were in the running for a $450 million facility. Shortly after the announcements were made, Tom Thornton, CEO and president of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, said he wasn’t surprised by the five finalists. “They are states that clearly have a pretty strong interest in this area,” Thornton said. “We got a lot of work in front of us.”

Here is a brief analysis of the competition Kansas State University is facing:

Georgia

University of Georgia at Athens has many advantages. The school has programs in zoonotics, re-emerging infectious diseases, and avian medicine. More importantly, the town is just ninety minutes from the Atlanta airport, the world’s busiest. Atlanta is also the headquarters of the CDC, the public health agency that studies, among other things, infectious diseases and bioterrorism. Athens also houses a USDA laboratory that specializes in infectious diseases in poultry and a USDA research center that looks at food quality and safety. Nearby is Merial Ltd., a global