59 Labs Around World Handle the Deadliest Pathogens – Only 1 in 4 Score High on Safety

Is the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 the result of a missed high-risk study? Regardless of the answer, the risk of future pandemics arising from research involving dangerous pathogens is real.

The focal point of this discussion about lab leaks is the Wuhan Institute of Virology, nestled in the hilly suburbs of Wuhan. It is just one of 59 maximum containment labs in operation, under construction or planned around the world.

Known as Biosafety Level 4 (BSL4), these labs are designed and built to allow researchers to work safely with the world’s most dangerous pathogens – pathogens that can cause serious illness and for which there are no treatments or vaccines. Researchers are required to wear full-body pressure suits with independent oxygen.

Spread over 23 countries, the largest concentration of BSL4 labs is located in Europe, with 25 labs. North America and Asia have roughly equal numbers, with 14 and 13 respectively. Australia has four and Africa three. Like the Wuhan Institute of Virology, three quarters of the world’s BSL4 labs are located in urban centers.

Location of BSL4 labs. Credit: https://www.globalbiolabs.org/map, author provided

With 3,000 m² of laboratory space, the Wuhan Institute of Virology is the largest BSL4 lab in the world, although it will soon be overtaken by the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility of Kansas State University in the US. When completed, it will have over 4,000 m² of BSL4 lab space.

Most labs are significantly smaller: half of the 44 labs where data is available are under 200 sq. ft. – less than half the size of a professional basketball court or about three-quarters of a tennis court.

About 60% of BSL4 labs are government-run public health facilities, while 20% are run by universities and 20% by biodefense agencies. These labs are either used to diagnose infections with highly lethal and transmissible pathogens, or they are used to research these pathogens to improve our scientific understanding of how they work and to develop new drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests.

But by no means all these labs score well on safety and security. The Global Health Security Index, which measures whether countries have legislation, regulations, regulators, policies and training in biosecurity and biosecurity, is instructive. Led by the US-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, the index shows that only about a quarter of countries with BSL4 labs received high scores for biosafety and biosecurity. This suggests that there is much room for improvement for countries to develop comprehensive bio-risk management systems.

Membership of the International Experts Group of Biosafety and Biosecurity Regulators, where national regulatory authorities share best practices in this area, is another indicator of national biosafety and biosecurity practices. Only 40% of countries with BSL4 labs are members of the forum: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and US. And no laboratory has yet joined the voluntary bio-risk management system (ISO 35001), introduced in 2019 to establish management processes to reduce biosafety and biosafety risks.

The vast majority of countries with maximum containment labs do not regulate dual-use research, which refers to experiments conducted for peaceful purposes, but which can be modified to cause harm; or gain-of-function research, which aims to increase a pathogen’s ability to cause disease.

Three of the 23 countries with BSL4 labs (Australia, Canada and the US) have national policies for oversight of dual-use research. At least three other countries (Germany, Switzerland and the UK) have some form of dual-use surveillance, with funding agencies requiring, for example, their grant recipients to review their research for dual-use implications.

Rising Demand for BSL4 Labs

That still leaves much of the scientific research on coronaviruses in countries without oversight of dual-use research or gain-of-function experiments. This is particularly worrisome as research into function gains with coronaviruses is likely to increase as scientists seek to better understand these viruses and identify which viruses pose a higher risk of jumping from animals to humans or becoming transmissible between humans. More countries are also expected to seek BSL4 labs in the wake of the pandemic as part of a renewed emphasis on pandemic preparedness and response.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong reminder of the risks of infectious diseases and the importance of a robust biomedical research venture to save lives, we must also keep in mind that such research can have its own risks. However, good science and smart policies can mitigate those risks and enable humanity to reap the benefits of this research.

Written by:

Filippa Lentzos – Senior Lecturer in Science and International Security, King’s College London Gregory Koblentz – Associate Professor and Director of the Master in Biodefense, George Mason University

Originally published on The Conversation.