Officials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced the awarding of $120 million grants to Boston University Medical Center and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston for the construction and operation of national biocontainment laboratories.

The announcement means that UC Davis will not receive federal support to build a biocontainment laboratory for research and diagnostic work on some of the most serious infectious diseases.

"We are certainly disappointed that our proposal was not funded, but feel confident that our application was strong and that we had a very positive site visit with the NIH review team," said Virginia Hinshaw, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor of UC Davis. "This has been a valuable learning experience, and our university is clearly better in many ways from having undertaken this challenge. Our campus teamwork on this issue strengthened us for undertaking future research opportunities of any magnitude and complexity and I'm proud that UC Davis made a great effort to better safeguard public health in California and the Western United States.

"Congratulations are in order to Boston University and the University of Texas; they are both excellent research institutions. I expect that our faculty will seek collaborations with these institutions after their facilities are built," Hinshaw said.

"I thank all the UC Davis faculty, staff and community members who worked so hard in support of our proposal, and I would like to thank our partners at other UC campuses, especially UCSF and UC Irvine, the California Department of Health Services, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Stanford University, and the other institutions that gave their time, expertise and support to this project," Hinshaw said. "I also thank the people who provided critical input that challenged us to address important concerns and generate needed information for the broader community.

"As a major research university with special expertise in human and animal health, UC Davis had a responsibility to respond to this call for proposals from the NIH," she said.

"UC Davis will continue to conduct important health research and raise the public awareness of the acute need for more resources to study and diagnose new and emerging infectious diseases," said Fred Murphy, dean emeritus of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and scientific director for the national biocontainment laboratory proposal. "During the past year we have strengthened our ties with research institutions and public health agencies throughout the state, and we look forward to future collaborative opportunities that will result from these relationships."

UC Davis plans to resubmit its application for a Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Diseases to the NIH. The center, which includes collaborators at other UC campuses, Stanford University, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and other institutions in the region, would fund a program of research on infectious diseases.