Our Mission

The mission of the Galveston National Laboratory is to serve as a resource to the nation and its citizens through medical research, the education of research professionals, and the development of medical countermeasures against severe infectious and chronic diseases that affect patients in the United States and around the world.

We accomplish this by maintaining a state-of-the-art facility where investigators can safely study the causes, modes of transmission, and progression of infectious diseases.  This work includes studies aimed at developing a more holistic understanding of the biology and ecology of these diseases, their causes, interactions, influences, potential and nature. The goal is to gain scientific knowledge that informs the development of diagnostics, preventives and therapeutics to improve human health.

UTMB is respected around the world for its expertise in microbiology, virology, pathology, epidemiology, clinical medicine and the harnessing of biostatistics and Artificial Intelligence. We're poised at the tip of the future of medical research, strengthened by our partnerships and collaborations with some of the best and brightest research professionals and organizations around the world.

The Galveston National Lab works to translate important laboratory science into products that ultimately save lives. We work collaboratively with federal agencies, universities and medical centers, private foundations focused on human health outcomes, and private industry to accomplish this goal. 

Uniquely, as one of only two Biosafety Level 4 laboratories on a U.S. university campus, we train the scientific teams of the future that will be needed to address the continuing challenge of emerging infectious diseases. Training graduate students, post-doctoral candidates and research staff is one of our highest goals.

Infectious diseases know no political boundaries.  As a society, we must prepare to combat these emerging diseases by being vigilant in our research efforts, and by investing in the kinds of laboratory facilities that the GNL contains.  The sound science and novel findings at work here contribute directly to our safety, as well as the safety of our nation and the global community in which we live.