U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., toured Duke's Global Health Research Building (GHRB) Wednesday. A member of the Senate Intelligence and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees, Burr is the sponsor of a bill that would standardize training for employees in biocontainment laboratories across the country. Burr said he wanted to visit Duke to see a laboratory that had been built with state-of-the-art equipment and safety features.
"A lot of what we talk about doing is already being done here," he said.
Richard Frothingham, director of the laboratory, along with several researchers briefed Burr on the safety and design of the building as well as some of the studies under way at the facility.
The laboratory supports basic research and the development of new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines for biodefense and emerging infections. It is one of 13 federally-funded Regional Biocontainment Laboratories and was designed to support public health efforts in the event of a biodefense emergency.