NEWS IN FOCUS GENE EDITING Verdict on bitter GEOPHYSICS Giant crack in BIOLOGY The race to map the EPIGENETICS Gene battle over who owns the Antarctic ice shelf spotlights human body — one cell at a expression is facing a rights to CRISPR p.401 glaciology advances p.402 time p.404 gold rush p.406 WUHAN VIROLOGY INSTITUTE WUHAN VIROLOGY
Hazard suits hang at the National Bio-safety Laboratory, Wuhan, the first lab on the Chinese mainland equipped for the highest level of biocontainment.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE Inside China’s pathogen lab Maximum-security biosafety facility nears approval, sparking excitement and concern.
BY DAVID CYRANOSKI, WUHAN, CHINA microbiologists are celebrating their entrance The lab was certified as meeting the to the elite cadre empowered to wrestle with standards and criteria of BSL-4 by the China laboratory in Wuhan is on the cusp of the world’s greatest biological threats. National Accreditation Service for Conform- being cleared to work with the world’s “It will offer more opportunities for ity Assessment (CNAS) in January. The CNAS most dangerous pathogens. The move Chinese researchers, and our contribution examined the lab’s infrastructure, equipment Ais part of a plan to build between five and seven on the BSL‑4-level pathogens will benefit and management, says a CNAS representative, biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) labs across the Chi- the world,” says George Gao, director of the paving the way for the Ministry of Health to nese mainland by 2025, and has generated Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory give its approval. A representative from the much excitement, as well as some concerns. of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology ministry says it will move slowly and cau- Some scientists outside China worry about in Beijing. There are already two BSL-4 labs in tiously; if the assessment goes smoothly, it pathogens escaping, and the addition of a Taiwan, but the National Bio-safety Labora- could approve the laboratory by the end of June. biological dimension to geopolitical tensions tory, Wuhan, would be the first on the Chinese BSL-4 is the highest level of biocontainment: between China and other nations. But Chinese mainland. its criteria include filtering air and treating
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The central monitor room at China’s National Bio-safety Laboratory.
water and waste before they leave the labo- Future plans include studying the pathogen China, where society emphasizes hierarchy. ratory, and stipulating that researchers change that causes SARS, which also doesn’t require “Diversity of viewpoint, flat structures where clothes and shower before and after using lab a BSL-4 lab, before moving on to Ebola and everyone feels free to speak up and openness of facilities. Such labs are often controversial. The the West African Lassa virus, which do. Some information are important,” he says. first BSL-4 lab in Japan was built in 1981, but one million Chinese people work in Africa; the Yuan says that he has worked to address this operated with lower-risk pathogens until 2015, country needs to be ready for any eventuality, issue with staff. “We tell them the most impor- when safety concerns were finally overcome. says Yuan. “Viruses don’t know borders.” tant thing is that they report what they have The expansion of BSL-4-lab networks in the Gao travelled to Sierra Leone during the or haven’t done,” he says. And the lab’s inter United States and Europe over the past 15 years recent Ebola outbreak, allowing his team to national collaborations will increase openness. — with more than a dozen now in operation or report the speed with which the virus mutated “Transparency is the basis of the lab,” he adds. under construction in each region — also met into new strains (Y.-G. Tong et al. Nature 524, The plan to expand into a network height- with resistance, including questions about the 93–96; 2015). The Wuhan lab will give his ens such concerns. One BSL-4 lab in Harbin need for so many facilities. group a chance to study how such viruses cause is already awaiting accreditation; the next two The Wuhan lab cost 300 million yuan (US$44 disease, and to develop treatments based on are expected to be in Beijing and Kunming, million), and to allay safety concerns it was built antibodies and small molecules, he says. the latter focused on using monkey models to far above the flood plain and with the capacity to The opportuni- study disease. withstand a magnitude-7 earthquake, although “Viruses ties for international Lina says that China’s size justifies this the area has no history of strong earthquakes. It don’t know collaboration, mean- scale, and that the opportunity to com- will focus on the control of emerging diseases, borders.” while, will aid the bine BSL-4 research with an abundance of store purified viruses and act as a World Health genetic analysis and research monkeys — Chinese researchers Organization ‘reference laboratory’ linked to epidemiology of emergent diseases. “The face less red tape than those in the West when similar labs around the world. “It will be a key world is facing more new emerging viruses, it comes to research on primates — could be node in the global biosafety-lab network,” says and we need more contribution from China,” powerful. “If you want to test vaccines or lab director Yuan Zhiming. says Gao. In particular, the emergence of antivirals, you need a non-human primate The Chinese Academy of Sciences approved zoonotic viruses — those that jump to humans model,” says Lina. the construction of a BSL-4 laboratory in 2003, from animals, such as SARS or Ebola — is a But Ebright is not convinced of the need for and the epidemic of SARS (severe acute respir- concern, says Bruno Lina, director of the more than one BSL-4 lab in mainland China. He atory syndrome) around the same time lent the VirPath virology lab in Lyon, France. suspects that the expansion there is a reaction to project momentum. The lab was designed and Many staff from the Wuhan lab have been the networks in the United States and Europe, constructed with French assistance as part of a training at a BSL-4 lab in Lyon, which some which he says are also unwarranted. He adds 2004 cooperative agreement on the prevention scientists find reassuring. And the facility has that governments will assume that such excess and control of emerging infectious diseases. already carried out a test-run using a low-risk capacity is for the potential development of But the complexity of the project, China’s lack virus. bioweapons. of experience, difficulty in maintaining fund- But worries surround the Chinese lab, too. “These facilities are inherently dual use,” he ing and long government approval procedures The SARS virus has escaped from high-level says. The prospect of ramping up opportunities meant that construction wasn’t finished until containment facilities in Beijing multiple to inject monkeys with pathogens also worries, the end of 2014. times, notes Richard Ebright, a molecular rather than excites, him: “They can run, they The lab’s first project will be to study the biologist at Rutgers University in Piscataway, can scratch, they can bite.” BSL-3 pathogen that causes Crimean–Congo New Jersey. Tim Trevan, founder of CHROME Trevan says China’s investment in a BSL-4 haemorrhagic fever: a deadly tick-borne virus Biosafety and Biosecurity Consulting in lab may, above all, be a way to prove to the that affects livestock across the world, includ- Damascus, Maryland, says that an open cul- world that the nation is competitive. “It is a big ing in northwest China, and that can jump to ture is important to keeping BSL-4 labs safe, status symbol in biology,” he says, “whether it’s people. and he questions how easy this will be in a need or not.” ■
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UPDATE The name of the CNAS representative has been removed from this article on request.
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