Rocky Mountain Regional Biocontainment Laboratory—Colorado State University

The Colorado State University Regional Biocontainment Laboratory is one of the NIAID-supported Regional Biocontainment Laboratories. The Center provides a safe, secure, state of art facility for research, service, and training in pathogens that cause human and animal diseases.

Main Areas of Focus

• The study of pathogens that cause human and animal diseases.
  • Viruses, in particular arboviruses and respiratory viruses that are risk group 3 or higher
  • Bacteria, in particular risk group 3 and / or antimicrobial resistant
  • Emerging pathogen threats to human and / or animal health
  • Sponsor driven (Agnostic to Federal, Government, Industry)
• Training, service, and other collaborations to further best practices for safely and efficiently working with risk group 3 pathogens
• Training, service, and other collaborations to further mission specific research programs and contribute to the next generation of responsive, trained scientists.

Who Can Use This Resource

• Internal and/or CSU hosted scientists and/or staff fully trained for working with risk group 3 pathogens and additionally cleared for the conduct of work based on federal, state, and institutional policies required for research scope.
• External academic, government and/or industry scientists and staff through formal agreement.
• This is a regional, nationally supported resource. It is understood by all using this resource that it may be unavailable for any use in response to regional/national need. 

How To Get Started

• Internal CSU persons should contact the Director of Biosafety.
• External persons should directly contact the internal research team for which the collaboration is intended.
  • Potential collaborations include:
    • Burkholderia spp. and related pathogens studies: Dr. Brad Borlee
    • Mycobacterium tuberculosis in vivo drug studies: Dr. Gregory Robertson
    • Co-infection of risk group 3 pathogens studies (in vitro and in vivo): Dr. Richard Slayden
    • Clinical research programs / biomarker discovery: Dr. John Belisle
    • Vaccine studies using UV radiation of risk group 3 pathogens: Dr. Ray Goodrich
    • Broad-scope animal modeling studies for risk group 3 pathogens: Dr. Angela Bosco-Lauth
    • Surveillance and spread of emerging or pandemic potential pathogens harbored in Chiroptera reservoirs: Dr. Rebekah Kading
    • Training in Chiroptera manipulation / studies in Chiroptera immunology: Dr. Tony Schountz
    • General inquiries regarding vector-borne disease collaborative opportunities: Dr. Greg Ebel

Services Offered

• cGMP and GLP biopharmaceutical contractual services: Bio-pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Academic Resource Center
  • Research and development to advance discovery to scale-up
  • Cell, bacterial, viral cell banking
  • Stability testing, monitoring, and storage of bio-pharmaceuticals
  • Aseptic final fill of bio-pharmaceuticals
• Training and workshops in Biosafety Best Practices: Office of Biosafety
• Rocky Mountain Regional Biocontainment Laboratory Technical Core: Eric Osei, Project Manager
  • Development of targeted mass spectrometry for proteomics / metabolomics targeted assays
  • Inactivation, processing and shipment of risk group 3 pathogens and clinical samples for multiple down stream use in lower-level laboratories
  • Training and walk-up use of LC-tandem MS for analysis of samples
  • Training and walk-up use of confocal microscopy
  • Development and training in Mass Spectrometry Imaging methods and analysis including processing of live risk group 3 pathogens
  • Development and training in Laser-capture Microdissection methods, processing, and analysis of live risk group 3 pathogens
  • Collaborative animal imaging studies (ABSL3; risk group 3 pathogens)
• Animal Disease Laboratory: Dr. Angela Bosco-Lauth or Dr. Richard Bowen
  • Development and establishment of novel animal models for emerging pathogens
  • Spill-over studies in multiple in vivo models
  • Natural transmission studies and modeling