From Ebola to Lassafieber: a new Berlin laboratory investigates dangerous viruses

The time has come next week. The Ebola virus arrives in Berlin. But no one has to be scared. Under the utmost safety precautions, a specialist firm delivers the dangerous pathogen from Hamburg to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). There he is immediately locked up, stored in liquid nitrogen behind the stainless steel waterproof walls of a high security laboratory. This is the autarkic world of a kind of space station, in the middle of Berlin.

The four-storey light gray cube of the Weddinger Seestraße is in direct proximity to the Virchow-Klinikum der Charité. This is also wanted. Because the laboratory has to investigate the most dangerous viruses in the world: in addition to the Ebola virus as well as viruses from Marburg, Lbada, Crimea, Hendra, Nipah and Sars. In the nearby Charity, there is a special isolation station, the largest in Germany

The first high security laboratory of a federal institute

If a suspicious patient of Ebola, de Lbada or Marburg is hospitalized in a Berlin clinic, where he will be transferred. and researchers from the nearby laboratory can quickly determine if a particular pathogen is present in the blood. Such cases of suspicion have occurred several times in recent decades. They have generally been found to be yellow fever or malaria. But a quick diagnosis is essential – even for contact people. Any quarantine measures must be taken quickly.

Up to now, only two high-level 4 (S4) safety laboratories have been allowed to work with the most dangerous pathogens for humans: in Hamburg. The new S4 laboratory in Berlin is the first high-security laboratory of a federal institute. "Globalization increases the chances that infected people will enter Germany," said RKI President Lothar H. Wieler. It was important for the federal government to have expertise in the field of highly infectious viruses. In addition, the laboratory should support diagnostics in case of possible bioterrorism attack

Everything is duplicated

The S4 laboratory was opened in 2015 in the presence of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Since then, the test has been conducted with less dangerous pathogens, eg cowpox. Starting Tuesday, things get serious. The laboratory starts the operations. The virologist and laboratory director Andreas Kurth and his team have been working on this topic for many years. After all, they should also deliberately conduct basic research on highly pathogenic agents and seek therapeutic approaches, including vaccinations. Andreas Kurth and his team want to study, for example, the use of Ebola viruses, if bats could be the carriers of the disease. "Little is known about the transmission routes of viruses," says Kurth. Since 2016, the RKI is the World Health Organization's (WHO) Collaborating Center for Emerging Infections and Biological Hazards.

The RKI laboratory is not only the largest in Germany, but also the only one that can work 24 hours a day. Work daily, as RKI boss Lothar H. Wieler explains. With the exception of the room in which the highly pathogenic viruses of liquid nitrogen are cooled and stored under lock and the space reserved for experimental animals, everything is duplicated. If one zone is turned off, the other can continue to operate

Six minutes under the chemical shower

The start of such an installation also raises questions, for example: is it possible that dangerous pathogens escape to the outside? This is virtually eliminated, say RKI researchers. The Berlin laboratory has a supply of air, water and electricity as well as four locks. Infectious agents are only stored in very small quantities. Potential terrorists could make them much easier in some parts of the world in nature, the researchers said. The concrete of the laboratory cube is bullet-proof, the inner body of stainless steel is gas-tight. In addition, there is a low pressure, so that no virus can escape in case of emergency.