Research

The GNL at UTMB is committed to advancing much-needed research in a safe, secure and state-of-the-science laboratory. Use of cutting-edge technologies and equipment, environmental controls, and state-of-the-art security systems provide experts in emerging and reemerging infectious diseases with the tools they need to advance medical research.

Scientists working in the GNL carry out multidisciplinary research into the causes, modes of transmission, and mechanisms 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 - allowing for the translation of this knowledge into practical measures that can improve human health.

The main focus of the research at the Galveston National Laboratory is infectious disease research. This includes research on emerging infectious diseases that are impacting the health of people all over the world. The specialized biocontainment facilities make it possible for scientists to work safely on infectious pathogens for which there is no prevention or cure, with a goal of developing rapid diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.

Sample research underway includes:

Vaccine development for West Nile Virus
Testing of drug candidates for Bacillus anthracis
Tick-borne virus transmission studies
Filovirus immunology studies
Multivalent vaccine development and testing
Vaccine development for tick-borne flaviviruses
Pathogenicity testing on Henipa and Henipa-like viruses

Testing of antiviral for biodefense
rVSV Vectored Vaccine to protect against Ebola and Marburg Viruses
Aerosole exposure testing
Defining a protective Ebola vaccine
Vaccines against Argentine Hemorrhagic Fever
Zika virus vaccine testing
Rapid diagnostic development for arboviruses
And many more

Animal Research

For more information on animal research at UTMB, click here.

The investigators at the Galveston National Laboratory (GNL) are known around the world for both their basic research and their translational discoveries related to existing and emerging infectious diseases.

Operational support for the GNL is provided, in part, by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an agency of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Additional support for operations of the lab is provided by the State of Texas. Individual research projects are funded by grants, contracts, and collaborative relationships with other universities, biomedical companies and agencies around the world.

Fast Facts:

The Galveston National Lab is the only fully operational BSL4 laboratory on a U.S. College campus.

Construction of the lab cost $173.6 million, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the State of Texas and private donors.

More than 165 research projects take place each year at the highest level of containment, and there are more researchers working at high containment at the GNL than in any laboratory in the world.

Researchers focus on developing diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics, as well as learning about the pathology of emerging infectious diseases.

The GNL is home to the World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses, a collection of more than 7,000 different strains of more than 600 different viruses. This reference center provides research samples to laboratories around the world.

UTMB serves as an international resource for training laboratory personnel to work safely in high containment. To date, the International Biosafety Training Center at UTMB has trained scientists, lab technicians, biosafety professionals, regulatory agency employees, animal care staff, and other personnel from more than 30 countries and 70 universities, federal laboratories and regulatory agencies around the world.