EVAg

Since 2004, INSERM holds the Inserm Jean Mérieux BSL4 Laboratory, which was built in 1999 in Lyon. Organized as a big infrastructure open to the whole national and international scientific community that needs to handle risk group 4 (RG4) infectious pathogens, the laboratory is the only one in France empowered to receive and study samples infected by RG4 pathogens. This infrastructure provides cutting edge facilities and proposes the largest Animal Biosafety Level 4 facility in Europe, allowing performing experimentations with animal models ranking from small rodents to Non-Human Primates (NHP).
The Inserm Jean Mérieux BSL4 Laboratory meets the most drastic international biological safety standards enabling to play a key role in the early warning and surveillance of epidemics. As such, the laboratory is actively involved in international and European-funded programs related to diagnosis and biological resources management.

The profile of the Inserm Jean Mérieux BSL4 laboratory (US003) matches with the main objectives and planned tasks of the proposal for the following reasons:Among the activities conducted in the laboratory, biosafety, diagnosis, biological resources management, animal experimentation and training are of most importance.Concerning the diagnosis, the laboratory is one of the 2 pillars of the National reference center for risk group 4 pathogens. Contribution to the development of diagnostic tools is a high commitment of the Jean Mérieux BSL4 laboratory. The laboratory is also strongly involved bring assistance in the fields, it is one of the partners of the European Mobile Lab project funded by EC and deployed till March 2014 in Guinea, as well as the coordinator of the EUWAMLab project, a new project funded by DG DEVCO, complementary to EMLab that aims at deploying a more ergonomic mobile lab in the field. In close link to diagnosis activities, the laboratory has established a management system for viral collection and is building a biological resource center in the frame of the extension of the existing BSL4 area.This laboratory is also the only one that can propose NHP experimentation in BSL4 condition. In this field, it has developed NHP models for filoviruses, arenaviruses and henipaviruses studies. Rodent models are also available for CCHF virus.