# Facility and Building System Upgrades Support for the Howard T. Ricketts Biocontainment Laboratory

> **NIH NIH G20** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2021 · $3,299,716

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The Howard Taylor Ricketts Laboratory (HTRL) is a state-of-the-art Regional Biocontainment
Laboratory on the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) campus in DuPage County, Illinois.
Located twenty-five miles southwest from the University of Chicago campus, ANL is a federally
(Department of Energy) owned site operated by the University of Chicago (UCHICAGO LLC).
HTRL is a CDC certified facility owned by the University of Chicago and operated by the
Department of Microbiology. Biosafety training and surveillance program involving classroom
and laboratory activities ensures that staff, students and fellows comply with state and federal
regulations to safely operate facilities and experiments with RG2, RG3 and Select Agent
pathogens. The HTRL construction was completed in 2008. Over the last 13 years, the HTRL
has hosted research programs studying the bacterial species Yersinia, Brucella, Coxiella,
Rickettsia, Bacilli, MRSA and other ESKAPE organisms, as well as viral pathogens including
low and highly pathogenic influenza, DENGUE and more recently SARS-CoV2. The facility
currently hosts research program on Plague, Anthrax and MRSA, as well as a Core Research
Facility for SARS-CoV2. The HTRL is the largest A-BSL3 holding facility in the region and
regularly supports research from consortium institutions including UIC, Northwestern U and
Loyola U. The HTRL is fulfilling its goal as a biomedical research facility that can rapidly
respond to research needs and support biomedical research on emerging and re-emerging
pathogens, discovery and testing of new therapeutics and vaccines. The building has been
maintained in excellent working conditions and has been in constant use since its construction.
However, with the swelling demands for BSL3 and ABSL3 space and research expertise, the
development of new technologies for the study of infectious agents, this proposal is a request (i)
to upgrade system components necessary to maintain biocontainment,
temperature/humidity/pressurization requirements, and safe research operations, and (ii) to
replace research equipment that have either outlived the intended useful life or no longer meet
facility requirements.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10394614
- **Project number:** 1G20AI167410-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Erin June Adams
- **Activity code:** G20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $3,299,716
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-16 → 2025-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10394614

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10394614, Facility and Building System Upgrades Support for the Howard T. Ricketts Biocontainment Laboratory (1G20AI167410-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-02 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10394614. Licensed CC0.

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