Masters students step inside the highest containment laboratory in Australia
Dr Sarah Londrigan, Dr Jessica Welch, Dept Microbiology & Immunology, and 22 Masters of Biomedical Science students undertaking the Defence & Disease: Containment or Chaos subject enjoyed super exclusive access on a recent excursion to CSIRO's Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong.
CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness is a critical piece of national infrastructure, providing Australia’s highest level of bio-containment within a purpose-built biosecurity facility in Geelong, Victoria.
As Australia’s national reference laboratory, ACDP’s work protects Australia’s community, and our valuable livestock and aquaculture industries, from exotic and emerging infectious animal and zoonotic diseases.
Working closely with the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and other key national stakeholders, ACDP is a crucial part of Australia’s biosecurity response system, conducting confirmatory disease diagnostics and providing critical advice on outbreak response measures.
Our students listened to various case studies highlighting the unique capabilities of the facility, team's expertise and the importance of their work.
They also learned about the engineering of the building – the laboratory floor is at the centre of five secure and fully contained levels, four within a microbiologically secure barrier with a 30cm thick concrete wall, forming an airtight box around the entire secure area – the many layers of biosecurity protocols for entering, working within, and exiting the secure area, and how waste is treated to ensure staff and the world outside are protected from the exotic and infectious diseases under research within.
This facility is one of only a handful in the world where the deadliest pathogens are held and used in research.
“It’s impressive that we have this world-class facility in our backyard doing this tremendous work" said Dr Sarah Londrigan, Senior Lecturer and Subject Coordinator.
It was such an fantastic experience for students who learned first hand the key role these labs are playing in the biosecurity efforts with the current avian influenza outbreaks happening right here in Victoria.
This excursion is only possible due to our strong collaborative partnership with the team at CSIRO, and we thank them for providing the opportunity for our students to learn in this real-world setting inspiring their scientific aspirations with such important work.
Saving the world – 2011 Movie 'Contagion'
CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong is fictionally referred to at the end of the 2011 Steven Soderbergh action-thriller Contagion – the 'Geelong labs’ that provide bat cells enabling the vaccine to be made that saved the world!