MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th March, 2021) The Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Center (BMC) has opened a new cell laboratory to study and grow live viruses with the aim of developing new vaccines and treatments, including against COVID-19, local media reported on Tuesday.
The laboratory was designed following all safety precautions to allow working with dangerous biological agents up to biosafety level three. Hermetically sealed research rooms ensure that viruses are contained inside the facility, while strict security measures make sure only authorized personnel has access to hazardous substances, the media said.
"Third group infectious agents are viruses and bacteria against which there may be some medicines, but which are very dangerous to human health and whose wider distribution we certainly would not want to allow. We need special rooms to work with such viruses," Nils Rostoks, BMC director, was quoted as saying by the LSM news portal.
In the near future, the new research facility will focus on studying mutations in the COVID-19 virus as part of Latvia's ongoing efforts to help foreign partners with the development of more effective coronavirus vaccines, the news portal stated.
"Opening such a laboratory in Latvia is a big step for research, studying both parts of viruses and viruses themselves, cultivating them. In the long run, it will allow Latvia to test and develop drugs such as vaccines and treatments," Dmitrijs Stepanovs, deputy state secretary in Latvian Ministry of education and Science was quoted as saying by the news.
Researchers will be able to use the laboratory to work not only with coronavirus and its variants but also with other agents in the same risk group, which include microbes that can cause serious and potentially lethal disease via inhalation. BSL-3 labs are most commonly used for the research of tuberculosis, SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, yellow fever, the and others.
