Beltsville in running for new lab

The university may soon gain access to a $450 million Department of Homeland Security biodefense laboratory that would create a significant boost in the university's research opportunities.

The Department of Homeland Security is searching for a replacement to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, a biodefense research facility now located in New York.

In hopes of making nearby Beltsville Agricultural Research Center the location for the new lab, the university is leading the Mid-Atlantic Bio-Ag Defense Consortium in a highly-competitive selection process.

The proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility will be dedicated to preventing bioterrorism, and will provide research on dangerous threats such as foot-and-mouth disease, a deadly virus found in livestock that can be passed on to humans.

"There's been more and more a deadly virus found in livestock that can be passed on to humans.

"There's been more and more feeling that our food system is vulnerable to attack and so we need to step up our ability to protect the nation against that," said Jacques Gansler, the Roger C. Lipitz Chair in Public Policy and the university's former vice president of research.

Winning access to the lab would create 400 to 750 new jobs and spawn other businesses, according to Stephen Schimpff, the consortium's director, a retired professor at this university and the former chief executive officer of the University of Maryland Medical Center.

"From an educational perspective, it's a gold mine of opportunities," Schimpff said. "Once the facility is in place, professors can then apply for other grants and contracts to do research. That's one of the big advantages for the university."

The consortium is competing against 17 other sites in 11 states for the 520,000-square-foot lab. According to the Department of Homeland Security website, a committee is supposed to reduce the competitors to between three and five finalists by the end of this month. However, no decision has been made thus far.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski's office (D-Md.) sent Schimpff a memo on Monday evening saying a decision will likely be delayed until August, Schimpff said.

However, the Department of Homeland Security didn't return calls.

The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, the flagship research center for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is already federally-owned land, which would make the transition to become DHS-owned much easier.

"We are the only USDA lab that has a research program that spans the entire spectrum of food and agriculture," said Phyllis Johnson, director of the USDA's research center. "This would complement the existing research program that we have."

The new lab will also require access to livestock, a feed mill and personnel who can care for and breed the animals, which is all available in the Beltsville research center.

The Department of Homeland Security is selecting a site based on several criteria, including location, access to qualified employees and a nearby research community. The site needs a minimum of 30 acres and proximity to an interstate highway and international airport.

The lab would be the third major national biodefense research center in Maryland, following the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Aberdeen and the National Interagency Biodefense Campus in Fort Detrick. The new lab, wherever it is located, will report to the Fort Detrick location.

The competition for the lab comes after recent cuts in federal funding to research facilities, Gansler said.

"The natural tendency is to cut back in the research for the future in order to pay for the present," Gansler said. "[But] there's an overwhelming feeling that bioterrorism is likely to happen, and so that the nation should be prepared for it in a variety of ways, one of which is the effect on our livestock and our food supplies."

Contact reporter Margaret Lee at newsdesk@dbk.umd.edu.