The stuff inside San Antonio's newest laboratory is so dangerous that scientists prepare as though they are going to face alien creatures on a hostile planet.

the second door inside the biosafety Level 4 laboratory.

Before setting foot beyond the sealed doors to the biosafety Level 4 lab at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, scientists step into suits that shield them, from head to fingertips to toes, in plastic as thick and gummy as a body-sized inner tube.

Once inside the box, they stay tethered to coiled tubes that pump filtered air into their protective suits. They wear headsets inside the suits and maintain radio contact with someone on the outside.

When their task is finished, usually after an uncomfortable three- to four-hour shift, the researchers exit through a six-minute torrent of disinfectant, delivered at such high pressure that they literally cannot see their hands as they stand inside the shower.

Scientific colleagues elsewhere are envious. The high-containment lab, operational since March, makes San Antonio one of the few places in the United States where scientists can tackle mysteries of emerging infectious diseases — lethal viruses such as dengue, Ebola and hemorrhagic fever, for which there are no vaccines and no cures.

The 1,000-square-foot BSL-4 lab at Southwest Foundation is one of five in the country, the first built west of Atlanta, and marks the start of a miniboom in "hot" labs that eventually could bring a second high-security containment facility to San Antonio.

That one, on the Texas A&M University drawing board, would be capable of containing animals and would give scientists the capability of studying potentially lethal diseases that can be passed from animals to humans.

The plan has been dormant for several years, languishing for lack of federal funds. But if it regains momentum, a key A&M researcher said, Texas Research Park in San Antonio represents "a logical place" to locate a facility that would study  diseases in the United States and Latin America.

                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                  Inside biosafety Level 4 laboratory.

reprinted: San Antonio Express News