Biosafety Level 3 facility

The LUMC has 2 BSL3 facilities and one stand-alone BSL3 laboratory. One facility consists of two separately operated laboratories for viral and bacterial research, and can be used for BSL-3 organisms as well as GMO of containment level ML-III. The other consist of 3 separately operated facilities for viral work (2) and diagnostics (1). Laboratory work can also be extended to animals from the ABSL-3 facility of the Animal Research Facility of the LUMC.

The LUMC has a long history working with viruses and bacteria classified as Risk Group 3 (RG3). In 2005, a state-of-the-art BSL-3 facility was opened to support this work. The BSL-3 facility is now used by the departments of Microbiology (section Virology) and the Department of Infectious Diseases. In 2022, a new facility will be opened for the Department of Microbiology (Virology section) and the clinical microbiology.

Facilities are regularly upgraded  to comply with the stringent rules of Biosafety and Biosecurity over the years. This means the facilities are not available for research groups outside of the LUMC that are not collaborating with present users or internal research projects.