Two public meetings will be held Wednesday, Jan. 29, on the proposal to build a national biocontainment laboratory at the University of California, Davis.

UC Davis is responding to a request for proposals from the National Institutes of Health to build what is known as a biocontainment, or biosafety, laboratory, where research could be conducted to develop vaccines, treatments and diagnostic methods for some of the infectious disease threats that affect California. The facility also would be equipped to do diagnostic work related to infectious diseases. The campus will submit its proposal by Feb. 10, and funds for one or two such laboratories are expected to be awarded in September.

The first meeting will be held from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Freeborn Hall at UC Davis. Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw will open the meeting with a general explanation of the laboratory proposal. A video, made during a recent visit by campus and community representatives to a similar facility in Winnipeg, Canada, will be shown.

Presentations on the research planned for the laboratory, the public health need for such a facility, and related security and safety issues will be made by UC Davis faculty members and emergency-services and environmental-health professionals. There will also be an opportunity for the public to have questions about the proposal answered.

The second public meeting will be a town-hall workshop, hosted by the Davis City Council in council chambers. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m., and presentations about the proposed biocontainment laboratory will begin at 7:30 p.m. There will again be an opportunity for members of the public to ask questions and comment on the proposed laboratory.

The council chambers are located in the rear of the City Hall complex near the corner of Russell Boulevard and A Street.

More information on the proposed national biocontainment laboratory is available online at http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/biodefense/wncbed.lasso.