Christian Messa

Brown Foundation makes first philanthropic contribution to Galveston National Laboratory

Planned facility will include world’s first high-containment lab equipped with virus-imaging tools to explore molecular structure of dangerous diseases

GALVESTON, Texas — The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston has contributed $750,000 to the planned national biocontainment research laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston — the first philanthropic contribution to the facility.

This gift will support the construction of the proposed $167 million Galveston National Laboratory as well as help pay for essential scientific equipment. UTMB received a $110 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2003 to construct one of two national biocontainment laboratories that will allow researchers to safely study the pathogens responsible for a number of dangerous emerging infectious disease threats. The Brown Foundation’s contribution will also help fulfill the $57 million local match needed for construction of the laboratory. Philanthropic support and revenue bonds committed by the University of Texas System’s Board of Regents will satisfy the match.

With construction slated to begin later this spring, the proposed Galveston National Laboratory will contain more than 12,000 square feet of biosafety level 4 (BSL4), or maximum-containment, lab space. The seven-story building will significantly augment UTMB’s existing 2,000 square feet of BSL4 space in the Robert E. Shope, M.D., Laboratory in the John Sealy Pavilion for Infectious Diseases Research. The Shope Lab is the first full-sized maximum biocontainment facility on a university campus in the Americas. It was financed by a lead gift from The Sealy & Smith Foundation of Galveston and additional funding from the National Institutes of Health and elsewhere.

In addition to the BSL4 space, the Galveston National Laboratory will have more than 70,000 square feet allotted for lower-level biosafety labs and related support facilities. The laboratory’s BSL4 capacity will allow UTMB researchers to use large pieces of equipment never before integrated into maximum biocontainment research. These include a confocal microscope, which employs lasers and fluorescent antibody “tags” to locate specific proteins in cells, as well as high-speed robotic drug-screening systems.

UTMB President John D. Stobo thanked the Brown Foundation’s Trustees for making a lead contribution to the national laboratory and thereby encouraging other philanthropic organizations to make similar contributions. “The Brown Foundation’s gift will significantly aid research that addresses one of the most pressing public health concerns of our age,” Stobo said. “We greatly appreciate the foundation’s foresight in supporting work aimed at developing new countermeasures, including breakthrough vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostic tools, against a range of dangerous pathogens.”

Dr. Stanley M. Lemon, an internationally recognized virologist and principal investigator of UTMB’s national laboratory project, said the Brown Foundation’s contribution will enhance the university’s position as an international leader in infectious disease research. “The world’s most distinguished investigators from UTMB and other universities will have the opportunity to conduct truly cutting-edge research in this facility, examining many viruses at a level of detail never achieved before,” said Lemon, the inaugural holder of the John Sealy Distinguished University Chair in Human Infections and Immunity and director of the academic health center’s new Institute for Human Infections and Immunity. He continued, “The Brown Foundation’s generous gift will help ensure that the Galveston National Laboratory will be an extraordinary facility capable of fulfilling a key role in the efforts of the National Institutes of Health to protect the American public not only against the potential ravages of bioterrorism, but also against the even more awesome threats posed by Mother Nature.”

A UTMB benefactor since 1991, the Brown Foundation has contributed nearly $1.8 million to various programs and initiatives, including the Program for Innovation in Education and the establishment of the William C. Levin Chair in Environmental Toxicology. The foundation is dedicated to community service, education and the arts and has directed most of its funding to institutions in Texas and Houston. It was established in 1951 by George R. Brown, Alice Pratt Brown, Herman Brown and Margaret Root Brown. George and Herman Brown founded the international construction company Brown and Root Inc.

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