According to UCLA’s School of Public Health, infectious diseases are spreading faster than at any other time in history and are the leading cause of acute human illness, lost productivity and death worldwide. Quick detection of these diseases is critical to halting and containing their spread. On Friday, May 20, 2011, UCLA will host the grand opening of its new Global Bio Lab, a first-of-its-kind high-speed, high-volume automated laboratory for infectious-disease surveillance, monitoring and research. The new facility will dramatically increase the speed at which infectious agents are submitted, tested and analyzed, and this enhanced capacity will improve our nation’s ability to respond quickly to bio-emergencies, such as bioterrorist attacks or flu pandemics. The UCLA School of Public Health collaborated with the Los Alamos National Laboratory to develop the Global Bio Lab, with initial, congressionally directed funding from the U.S. Department of Defense and from the California Emergency Management Agency. The event will begin at 11 a.m. in the California NanoSystems Institute, lobby, 570 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles. Dignitaries in attendance include: Rep. Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader (D-CA); Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA); UCLA Chancellor Gene Block; Dr. Linda Rosenstock, Dean of the UCLA School of Public Health; and Cindy Horn, Member of the UCLA School of Public Health Dean's Advisory Board.
The central focus of the Global Bio Lab at UCLA is to provide a worldwide collaborative network of researchers, public health workers, governments and the medical community with accurate and timely situational awareness. Quick detection of these diseases is critical to halting and containing their spread. In 2006, the UCLA School of Public Health, committed to create a high-tech laboratory network to combat emerging infectious diseases. The UCLA Global Bio Lab will serve as the core automated high throughput facility to support both population based surveillance activities for infectious diseases and basic infectious diseases research. Beyond its research and disease-response capacities, the Global Bio Lab aspires to become a global steward and will work through its bioscience, chemistry and theoretical divisions and collaborating interdisciplinary Centers to prepare and educate a new generation of leaders in infectious diseases and national security.
See Also:
UCLA receives grant to mitigate tissue damage from a nuclear attack
UCLA launches program to fight surgical infections
UCLA announces another nanotechnology cancer-fighting breakthrough
Comments