World's Deadliest Germs Moving to Boston

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World's deadliest germs moving to Boston

BOSTON (AP) -- Boston University won final federal approval Thursday for a

controversial plan to build a research laboratory in the city's South End that

would handle some of the world's most dangerous and exotic germs.

The decision by the National Institutes of Health secures $128 million in

federal funding for the lab, which will be part of a national group of

facilities that will study infectious diseases such as ebola and the West Nile

virus.

University officials said the lab will be safe and will provide needed

research into contagious illnesses and the risk they might pose in the hands of

bioterrorists.

But opponents have criticized the decision to build the lab in a densely

populated urban neighborhood.

The controversy escalated in 2004, when three workers at another BU lab

became sick after they were exposed to a highly infectious strain of tularemia,

or rabbit fever. They recovered.

Construction is scheduled to begin this month and should be complete by

2008.

The university estimates the new lab will create more than 650 permanent

jobs and contribute nearly $3 billion to the local economy over the next 20

years.

" We are proud to be part of the national network of dedicated scientists and

researchers who will use this state-of-the-art facility to safely find

treatments and cures for some of the most dangerous infectious diseases that

threaten Boston, the nation and the world, " said Dr. Mark Klempner, lead

investigator for the new lab.

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