NIAID National Institute of Health Integrated Research Facility (Fort Detrick)
Scheduled for completion in 2008, the new 144,000 gsf NIH/NIAID intramural high containment biodefense facility is the first (A) BSL-2/3/4 building to be constructed at the new National Interagency Biodefense Campus at Fort Detrick. The key challenge for this project was to provide the first fully integrated advanced medical equipment, patient support infrastructure, and whole animal imaging core in an ABSL-3/4 vivarium environment, in a biocontainment facility model while mitigating conflicts between the stringent biosafety requirements of containment barrier design and the finely calibrated scientific equipment.
A three-story glass atrium serves as an entry point for all staff and guests. Containing a small seating area framed by a communicating stair, the atrium also acts as the first layer of security. Beyond the security checkpoint, the laboratory modules and animal holding rooms have been configured to provide isolation of experiments, which facilitates pre-clinical validation of vaccine and therapeutic candidates under GLP conditions.
Hemisphere Engineering is providing commissioning services for the high containment portion of this project as well as overall management of engineering services, and full mechanical, plumbing, controls, and fire protection design and coordination. Specialized systems design includes: liquid waste decontamination system and waste monitoring, tissue digester, and a study of the existing campus medical waste incinerators.
This is the first BSL-4 facility designed to contain Imaging technologies (MRI) within containment space.
