April 25, 2003

World's Most Dangerous Germs, Coming to a Campus Near You?

U. of California at Davis battles its community over proposed biosafety laboratory

By Jeffrey Brainard

At the western edge of the University of California at Davis campus, on a vacant plot of farmland, officials are proposing to build a new laboratory whose internal operations and outside appearance would be like none other at a university.

Inside, some employees would wear spacesuitlike protective gear to work with the world's most dangerous microbes, like the Ebola virus. Outside the fortress-like building, trenches, berms, a double set of fences, and blast-hardened walls would