High-Security Laboratories in Europe
Connecting Europe’s high-security laboratories in order to provide better protection for its citizens is the objective of the EHSL4 (European High-Security Laboratories level-4) project. Coordination of the project has been entrusted to Inserm, the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research, which runs the P4 Inserm-Jean Mérieux laboratory in Lyon, the largest in its category in Europe.
At the P4 Inserm-Jean Mérieux laboratory in Lyon, researchers work on the most dangerous pathogenic agents in the world. “They handle micro-organisms such as the Ebola, Marburg, Nipah, Hendra, Congo-Crimean haemorrhagic and Lassa viruses, which have very high mortality rates and for which no prophylactic methods such as vaccination or treatment are available,” explains Hervé Raoul, the laboratory director.
A total of six laboratories of this type exist in Western Europe (in France, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Italy, with two in Germany), and their size and practical facilities vary according to the site: diagnosis, research, animal experimentation, professional training, etc.. “But that is not enough,” points out Hervé Raoul. “The number of laboratories and the geographical coverage within Europe needs to be expanded in order to respond to the emergence of increasingly virulent and resistant micro-organisms”. Indeed, in the event of a pandemic (an epidemic that affects the populations of a very wide geographical area), the capacity offered by existing structures will not be sufficient to respond effectively to the needs for diagnosis and research. Hence the emergence of the EHSL4 (European High-Security Laboratories level-4) project.
The aim: EHSL4 will be developed to deal with the emergence of highly pathogenic infectious agents. This mechanism should promote and coordinate basic and applied research activities. It should also enable the capacities for diagnosis to be developed, centres of biological resources to be set up and organised, in conjunction with the BBMRI * (Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure) network. Finally, the EHSL4 project plans to provide training for researchers in the fields of security and biological safety, as well as setting up a governing structure, “or rather a coordinating body,” adds Hervé Raoul.
In this context, the capacities of certain existing laboratories will be increased, new structures will be created and access to these new tools will be organised for countries that do not have them. The research activities which will be developed should make it possible to respond to the issues of protecting the population, diagnosis and treatment of those infected.
Coordination of this project has been entrusted to the P4 Inserm-Jean Mérieux laboratory in Lyon, whose performance and organisational methods have been recognised by the European authorities. The preparatory phase is planned for 2010-2013. Some ten European countries have already expressed their interest in this project, which will remain open to all states concerned.
Delphine Barrais
* The BBMRI is a pan-European project of geographically dispersed infrastructures, bringing together 230 centres using national biological resources, in 21 European countries and coordinated by Austria (funding of the preparatory phase 2008-2010).
Human biological samples, associated with clinical and scientific data, are the key resources that enable us to understand the genetic and environmental factors that lead to pathologies and influence their development. The information gained from these samples helps in the development of new prognostic, diagnostic and therapeutic tools.
Websites:
French National Institute for Health and Medical Research
P4 Jean Mérieux laboratory