The Center’s team was certified by the University of California, Irvine, an international reference in biosafety, to provide theoretical and practical training in high-containment biosafety facilities
Teams from the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), an organization overseen by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), are now certified to work and also train professionals interested in qualification in the best practices for work, documentation, and maintenance in biosafety level 3 laboratories.
This certification from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine, an international reference and institution of excellence in the United States, is the first step toward training teams that in the future will be able to work at Orion, CNPEM’s laboratory complex for advanced pathogen research.
The Orion project receives funding from the Brazilian National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FNDCT), within MCTI, and is part of the federal government’s New Growth Acceleration Program (“Novo PAC”); construction will begin during this first half of this year. The complex will combine laboratories for basic research with advanced competencies and analytical techniques for biological imaging such as electron microscopy, including cryomicroscopy.
Orion’s differentials
Orion will also be the first facility in Brazil to meet the highest level of biosafety requirements, level 4 (BSL-4). These resources are related to the physical facilities and essential procedures for conducting research on pathogens that can cause severe, highly transmissible diseases. It will also be the only laboratory of its type in the world with BSL-4 environments connected to a synchrotron light source.
The new complex will benefit from its proximity to Sirius, CNPEM’s state-of-the-art synchrotron. Sirius can generate a very special type of light that permits investigation of the composition and structure of materials at the most fundamental scales.
Three of the experimental research stations at Sirius, known as beamlines, will be dedicated exclusively to experiments in Orion’s BSL-4 environments. The connection will allow pioneering studies under safer conditions for biological materials obtained from samples of cells, tissue, and organisms. The project is intended to foster absolutely revolutionary opportunities for understanding phenomena related to the development of diseases, which could guide the development of future diagnostic methods, vaccines, and treatments.
For example, these research stations will make it possible to extract quantitative and structural data about infected systems, ranging from the subcellular to the organism levels. Scientists will be able to test hypotheses about mechanisms of infection, using three-dimensional images to observe the chain of phenomena that lead to the development of illnesses generated by class 4 pathogens.
International biosafety certification
UCI has already trained over 2,000 professionals in the United States and various countries. The training provided by its specialists was conducted in-person at the CNPEM facilities, and included theoretical and practical activities to simulate various situations related to the routines of research, documentation, and maintenance in biosafety level 3 environments (BSL-3).
The CNPEM team, which was comprised of researchers, engineers, and technicians, is now certified to work in BSL-3 labs and also to train other professionals pursuing this level of qualification.
The program to train specialized staff certified to work in maximum containment research environments still continues. Professionals at CNPEM from a variety of backgrounds will participate in trainee and internship programs in several research centers that are references in the United States and Europe, where studies on pathogens of strategic interest for health security in Brazil and Latin America are already underway. These include the Sabiá virus (SABV), which causes Brazilian hemorrhagic fever, a disease first diagnosed in humans in the 1990s. Because of the lack of BSL-4 laboratories in Brazil, samples of this pathogen needed to be sent overseas for storage.
“Brazil’s location in South America is strategic for the scientific community to respond to emerging diseases. The presence of trained teams like this around the world, capable of safely studying these emerging and reemerging pathogens during outbreaks, is critical. Many of these diseases require level three biosafety for diagnosis and development. For this reason, it is essential to have the infrastructure necessary to offer society a rapid response,” notes Hailey DeMers, director of the UCI BSL-3 national training program.
Training and qualification program
Even before the inauguration of Orion, CNPEM will begin a training and qualification program for high- and maximum-level biosafety containment facilities which is groundbreaking in Brazil. Focused on training human resources in competencies that are not yet widely developed in Brazil and other Latin American countries, this front is intended to support the training of future potential users of Orion.
It will include theoretical activities and practical sessions to be held in a training laboratory, a mock-up space which is a faithful copy of the real facilities inside a maximum containment biosafety facility (BSL-4), which is already available on the CNPEM campus. Within this simulated space, researchers in training will be able to carry out security protocols without actually handling infectious materials or risking infection, under the supervision of professionals dedicated to performing individual assessments on biosafety protocols.
The first group trained at this CNPEM training center will comprise eight professionals from the São Paulo School of Medicine (UNIFESP), who will arrive in Campinas on February 26.
“We hope to train professionals from various institutions in Brazil as well as Latin American countries. We also expect to have other training cohorts this year. There is a consensus among everyone involved in the project that this front is fundamental for us to yield the best results with the entire infrastructure that will be made available at Orion, while also strengthening the academic community that already works in BSL-3 laboratories,” note Tatiana Ometto, a specialist in maximum biosafety containment at CNPEM.
“Society will begin to reap the benefits even before the Orion complex officially begins operations. With this national training program for high-level and maximum biological containment facilities, CNPEM contributes to the development of human resources with skills that are still not widespread in Brazil and other countries in Latin America. They are fundamental requirements to protect Brazilians from future potential pandemics and strategic to national sovereignty,” adds Antonio José Roque da Silva, director general of CNPEM.
More information about the program for potential participants can be found at: https://pages.cnpem.br/treinamentonb3/.
About CNPEM
A sophisticated and effervescent environment for research and development, unique in Brazil and present in few scientific centers in the world, the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) is a private non-profit organization, under the supervision of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI). The Center operates four National Laboratories and is the birthplace of the most complex project in Brazilian science – Sirius – one of the most advanced synchrotron light sources in the world. CNPEM brings together highly specialized multi-thematic teams, globally competitive laboratory infrastructures open to the scientific community, strategic lines of investigation, innovative projects in partnership with the productive sector and training of researchers and students. The Center is an environment driven by the search for solutions with impact in the areas of Health, Energy and Renewable Materials, Agro-environment, and Quantum Technologies. As of 2022, with the support of the Ministry of Education (MEC), CNPEM expanded its activities with the opening of the Ilum School of Science. The interdisciplinary higher course in Science, Technology and Innovation adopts innovative proposals with the aim of offering excellent, free, full-time training with immersion in the CNPEM research environment. Through the CNPEM 360 Platform, it is possible to explore, in a virtual and immersive way, the main environments and activities of the Center, visit: https://pages.cnpem.br/cnpem360/.
