MU potential location for defense facility
The facility will be built in 2008-2009 at one of 17 locations.
Published May 1, 2007
When people think of Homeland Security biological defense, MU and Columbia are probably not the first places to come to mind. But MU is in the running as a location for a new Department of Homeland Security National Bio and Agro- Defense Facility to be built in 2008-2009.
In the winter of 2006, the Department of Homeland Security sent out a request for locations for the new facility and received 29 expressions of interest from different locations, of which MU was one. The facility would replace New York's Plum Island Animal Disease Center and expand its capabilities, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Christopher Kelly said.
"It will really lead us into a 21st century capability to conduct bio and agro- defense functions," he said.
In August 2006, the Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, narrowed down the potential sites to 18. When one other site dropped out, MU was left as one of 17 potential sites to house the new facility, Kelly said.
If MU is chosen to house the research facility, it would be built on a 100-acre piece of land in the South Farm Complex north of New Haven Road, MU spokesman Christian Basi said.
The $450 million facility would primarily conduct research on foreign animal diseases communicable to humans, such as avian bird flu, Kelly said.
"To control epidemics and protect the public health, medical researchers must be able to quickly identify naturally emerging microbes and biothreat agents and develop treatments and vaccines for them," George Stewart, professor and chairman of the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, stated in a news release.
Kelly said there are four key areas the Department of Homeland Security looks at to determine the best location for the new facility: access to research capabilities, access to a workforce able to conduct research, ability to acquire, construct and operate such a facility and the community's acceptance to such a facility.
The Department of Homeland Security will visit the MU site May 10-11 to talk with university, city and state officials and will cut the remaining applicants to three to five institutions by the end of June, Kelly said.
Although the facility would be federally owned and operated, it would offer research opportunities for MU researchers along with graduate and undergraduate students, while putting the state of Missouri at the forefront of fighting some of these dangerous diseases, Basi said.
"It's not uncommon for researches to collaborate with other scientists across the country," he said. "With this facility, we would hope to have the opportunity for collaboration with the scientists who will be conducting research there. It's a matter of having this expertise here in Columbia and being close to that expertise."
Kelly said the winning site will be announced in November 2008, and the facility should be completed and operational by 2014.