In the new RKI Level Four Protective Laboratory in Berlin, highly contagious and potentially fatal pathogens such as Ebola, Lbada or Nipahvirus can be examined reliable. / RKI
Berlin – On July 31, a new, highest security laboratory will be commissioned at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Thus, the RKI is the only federal institute in the field of human medicine with a BSL-4 laboratory (Biosafety level four). Among other things, it will be studied here how long ebolaviruses outside of host cells can reproduce and which animals carry the virus. In addition, the patients of the neighboring Charité-Campus Virchow-Klinikum should benefit from the new laboratory
Part of the diagnosis of highly infectious and potentially fatal pathogens is only possible in S4 laboratories which respect the highest level of Safety according to the Genetic Engineering Act. Pathogens include Ebola, Nipah, Marburg, Lbadavirus and also Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever viruses that occur in Europe.
Specifically, experiments with some species of bats (Pug condylide) are planned to find out if animals can transmit the Ebola virus – as has been suspected since the Ebola epidemic in Africa from the West in 2014/15. In the new S4 laboratory, it is also planned to work with (humanized) mice, guinea pigs and hamsters. The premises are also suitable for species that must be kept in tropical conditions.
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S4 labs also provide a safe search space for previously unknown new pathogens, such as the SARS virus. RKI researchers also badume that some pathogens, such as polioviruses or measles viruses, will be improved in the medium term in order to move closer to planned global eradication.
Individual cases of highly pathogenic diseases can be imported into Germany. To decide quarantine and treatment options, the pathogen must be diagnosed quickly. Some of the diagnoses can only be performed in an S4 laboratory. Patients at the nearby Virchow-Klinikum Charité-Campus will also benefit from the RKI's high-security laboratory
Berlin's S4 laboratory has advantages over Marburg and Hamburg
In addition to the oldest human S4 laboratory in Europe 39 Bernhard Nocht Institute of Berlin Hamburg, from which will also come the Ebola virus, and a laboratory in Marburg, the laboratory RKI S4 is the third of its kind in Germany. A fourth S4 laboratory, specializing in animal diseases, is located on the island of Riems in the Baltic Sea.
With its 330 square meters, the RKI-S4 laboratory is not only the largest in Germany, but the only one that can operate 24 hours a day, year-round, explained RKI's president Lothar H. Wieler. With the exception of the room in which highly pathogenic viruses are cooled in liquid nitrogen and stored under lock, as well as space for experimental animals, everything is duplicated. If an area is disabled, further work can be done in the other. "The labs in Hamburg and Marburg have to be closed once a year for months," says Wieler
. The S4 laboratory has its own supply of air, electricity and water. It is therefore completely separated from the environment and forms its own aerosol unit and airtightness. The constant negative pressure in the laboratory prevents the air from coming out of the laboratory in case of leakage.
