The CEEZAD BSL-3 Training/Transboundary Animal Diseases Summer Program is designed to introduce graduate, DVM and upper-level undergraduate students to high-containment training and to provide current practical and scientific information on select high consequence transboundary and zoonotic diseases.
The program is funded through a task order with the Department of Homeland Security and is directed at highly motivated students with a demonstrated career interest in transboundary and zoonotic diseases of animals. The two-week program consists of one week of intensive, hands-on and classroom training at the Biosecurity Research Institute (BRI) at Kansas State University followed by a second week of site visits to area industry partners and seminars and lectures from national and international subject matter experts in containment research and transboundary animal diseases.
The BRI, located adjacent to the site of the future National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, or NBAF, has a premier Education and Training Facility including a training laboratory that contains equipment to simulate BSL-3 research practices. Both CEEZAD and the BRI are committed to training a specialized workforce to protect the nation’s agriculture and public health sectors against high consequence transboundary, emerging and zoonotic diseases.
Link to apply: 2019 Summer Training Program
Eligibility Requirements
- U.S. citizenship
- Cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher on a 4.0 scale
- Current enrollment as a full-time undergraduate (junior or senior), graduate student, or DVM student
Program Goals
- To provide training on essential practices to safely conduct research in a BSL-3 and BSL-3 Ag environment
- To provide current practical and scientific information on select high-consequence transboundary animal diseases including activities to be conducted at the future National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kan.
- To introduce students to the role of industry in infectious disease research and translation to commercial product
- To provide networking opportunities with peers and subject matter experts in the field of high-containment research and transboundary diseases of animals
Program Overview
Week 1: Classroom and hands-on BSL-3 training at the BRI
One week of training will address topics, techniques and essential practices to safely and successfully conduct research in a Biosafety Level-3 setting. By the end of the training the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of risk group classifications and biosafety levels;
- Identify potential risks associated with executing standard laboratory practices;
- Engage in laboratory practices that reduce the potential for aerosol exposures;
- Identify, select, and defend high containment practices required when manipulating agents and toxins;
- Identify areas of potential vulnerabilities in the laboratory ecosystem/network to include how technology introduction may impact laboratory operations (cybersecurity), safety, security, and overall laboratory capability;
- Demonstrate essential biocontainment practices for use in BSL-3, ABSL-3 and BSL-3Ag settings.
Week 2: Speaker series and Industry site visits First two days during the second week will be devoted to field visits to CEEZAD and Kansas State University partners in the Greater Kansas City Animal Health Corridor. The final two days of seminars and lectures by academic and government experts in the fields of containment research and transboundary animal diseases. Topics covered will include:
- Necropsy considerations in high-containment research
- Careers in high-containment research
- Rift Valley Fever virus
- African Swine Fever virus
- Classical Swine Fever virus
- Arboviral diseases of livestock and horses
- Research in a BSL-4 environment
- Research at Plum Island Animal Disease Center and future projects at NBAF
All participants will be required to submit a final written report at the end of the program.
Successful applicants will receive a travel stipend up to $2,000 to cover transportation to and from Manhattan, Kan. and lodging and per diem expenses. Applicants residing in or near the Manhattan, Kan. area may not be eligible to receive a travel stipend. An on-campus housing option is available.
All applications must be submitted to ceezad@ksu.edu by: Monday, March 4, 2019
For More Information, Please Contact:
Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506
Phone: 785-532-2793
E-mail: ceezad@ksu.edu