Infectious Diseases Facility Containment Level 3 Laboratories
Our Infectious Diseases Facility is available to internal and external users.
Our Mission
The Infectious Diseases Facility provides state of the art laboratories to ensure a safe and secure environment for researchers from 缅北禁地, other local academic institutions, 缅北禁地 upon Tyne Trust Hospitals and commercial organisations to study hazard group 3 (HG3) infectious biological agents.
Biological agents are classified according to their risk to human health by the . Hazard group 3 biological agents include bacteria and viruses that can cause severe human disease.
The Infectious Diseases Facility (IDF) has been specifically designed to meet control measures required for working with hazard group 3 (HG3) infectious biological agents and enables us to provide a rapid response to emerging pathogens and be prepared for the next pandemic.
Available Services
The IDF provides access for researchers to containment level 3 (CL3) laboratories to provide a safe and secure environment for working with HG3 infectious biological material. The facility complies with the control measures specified in , COSHH and the security measures in Part 7 Security of Pathogens and Toxins.
Our containment level 3 (CL3) laboratories have been designed to be completely sealable to allow for fumigation and operate at negative air pressure which is maintained by an independent state of the art air handling system with all extracted air being HEPA filtered. The integrity of the facility is validated annually, magnahelic gauges calibrated, and air pressures and air handling systems are validated to ensure negative pressure is maintained.
The IDF comprises of two self-contained laboratory suites each providing Class I and Class II Microbiological Safety cabinets for containment of all work and an autoclave for the inactivation of waste before removal from the facility.
The laboratories also contain a wide range of laboratory equipment for the processing of infected samples and culturing of viral and bacterial strains.
Access to the facility is restricted to personnel that meet the pre-requisites and have undergone stringent CL3 safety training and competency assessment.
Sustainability
The LEAF UCL, Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework, is a framework that helps research laboratories to improve their sustainability and efficiency. LEAF is based on a wide range of actions to help laboratories reduce waste, resource consumption and carbon footprint to create an environment that supports quality research.
The Infectious Diseases Facility has maintained GOLD award for sustainability since 2023.
The Infectious Diseases Facility is also a member of the Leech Building Green Impact team working together with colleagues to improve the sustainability and environmental performance of the work area. The Leech building was awarded NUS Green Impact Silver award 2025.
