Kent State to establish biodefense center
Kent State transforms existing laboratory on the Kent campus to a Level 3 biosafety training laboratory and opens Center for Public Health Preparedness
Researching and developing methods to fend off bioterrorism are challenging intellectually and potentially lucrative commercially. Little wonder that more and more academic centers marry existing assets with federal funds to become a player in the field. Ohio’s Kent State University will use almost $1.5 million in federal money to establish the Center for Public Health Preparedness “to address the threat of bioterrorism,” university trustees announced. Almost $700,000 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and another $775,000 from the U.S. Department of Education will help create the center, housed in the department of biological sciences. The center’s mission will include research, education, and workforce development initiatives aimed at increasing knowledge and response to public health crises such as bioterrorism.
The money was used to transform an existing laboratory on the Kent campus to a Level 3 biosafety training laboratory for training and education purposes. Employees and officials at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine in Rootstown, the University of Akron, Youngstown State, Case Western Reserve, and Cleveland State universities, Cuyahoga Community College, several private corporations, Youngstown-based 910th Airlift Wing Command, and Kent city schools all partner in the center’s consortium.
