# Practices Core

> **NIH NIH UC7** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $709,325

## Abstract

PRACTICES CORE
ABSTRACT:
The Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL) within the Center for Vaccine Research (CVR) at the University
of Pittsburgh is the biosafety level-3 (BSL-3) hub for infection biology. The mission of the RBL is threefold, to
work on pathogen emergence, evolution and host-to-host transmission, to study the pathogenesis of
emerging infectious diseases and to accelerate pre-clinical development of novel interventions and medical
countermeasures for pandemic preparedness and biodefense. Our vision is to be a globally recognized, highly-
collaborative, creative and forward-facing team of infection biologists who are poised to respond to emerging
biological threats both at the national and international level. The entire facility is registered with the Division of
Select Agents and Toxins (DSAT). It brings together infection biologists and clinicians from a variety of disciplines
who require BSL-3 and animal (A)BSL-3 facilities for their wide ranging viral and bacterial research programs.
Biocontainment work is operationally complex, infrastructure-dense, and comprehensively regulated. Running
BSL-3 laboratories safely, securely and successfully demands having a well-organized and highly integrated
team of administrators, scientists, biosafety/biosecurity professionals, engineers/facilities staff and
veterinarians/zootechnical staff. This is especially important in multi-pathogen, multi-user research facilities that
study standard and select agent BSL-3 pathogens. The Practices Core will support all the basic functions of the
RBL enabling scientific programs to be rigorously managed and ensuring overall data integrity for reproducible
outcomes. It will provide the requisite theoretical and practical trainings to onboard new RBL Investigators and
their teams who wish to work in BSL-3 and ABSL-3 biocontainment. It will provide biosafety and biosecurity
support and guarantee the facility meets all current compliance regulations for Tier 1 select agent registered
laboratories. Provision of technical and support for the RBL in Pittsburgh will ensure we are ready to respond to
any national response to a range of emerging infectious diseases in the event of another pandemic or
bioterrorism attack. Supporting this cohort of BSL-3 scientists, who can pivot to work on new pathogens in an
emergency, is certain to pay dividends.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10910183
- **Project number:** 5UC7AI180311-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** William Paul Duprex
- **Activity code:** UC7 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $709,325
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-08-18 → 2028-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10910183

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10910183, Practices Core (5UC7AI180311-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10910183. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*