UofL RBL Operations, Workforce Development and Pandemic Preparedness Research

SUMMARY (OVERALL): The University of Louisville Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL) is operated by the University Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (CPM). The RBL is a regional resource that facilitates translational research to develop diagnostics, prognostics, therapeutics and vaccines to mitigate biodefense and emerging infectious disease threats. Our Center operates the only BSL-3 and ABSL-3 facilities currently operating in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The CPM mandate is to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The broad, long-range objectives and goals of the University of Louisville (UofL) CPM RBL are: 1. To offer state-of-the-art research services to the regional and national biomedical research community to learn from past pandemics and biological warfare experiences and effectively predict and mitigate future emerging infectious disease threats. 2. To manage, maintain and operate the UofL RBL to serve the national and regional need for biocontainment facilities suitable for research on Risk Group 3 pathogens and other biothreats. 3. To follow a philosophy of continuous improvement in BSL-3 and ABSL-3 work practices and to ensure that all personnel who need to access BSL-3 and ABSL-3 containment laboratories are appropriately trained and prepared to serve the national and regional need for biocontainment research professionals. To achieve these aims we propose to establish three collaborative Cores. The Facilities Management Maintenance and Operations Core (FMMO Core) is responsible for ensuring that the facility is always available to meet the research and emergency preparedness mission of the RBL. The BSL-3 Practices and Workforce Development Core (BSL-3PWD Core) formalizes our mentor-mentee training plan to ensure our laboratory is staffed with BSL-3 research professionals who are proficient at biocontainment research professionals. This core responds to the reality that response to rapidly emerging public health emergencies like COVID-19 is limited by the number of available BSL-3 trained and experienced research professionals. Our Pandemic Preparedness and Response Integrated Research Core (PaPR Core) responds to the substantially increased requests for our BSL-3 research services by organizing an integrated full-service BSL-3 research support function to support investigator needs. These cores will work in unison to achieve the CPM mission: to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.