The University of Iowa State Hygienic Laboratory is expanding with the help of a time-sensitive CDC grant after the state Board of Regents approved the plans, The Daily Iowan reported Jan. 30.
The Coralville-based lab serves all 99 counties of Iowa, and the 5,000-square-foot expansion will give its staff of 130 more room to work, the report said. The addition will include a new biosafety level 3 lab that will allow safer study of infectious diseases than the facility's current BSL-3 lab, which has suffered from ventilation problems.
Wade Aldous, PhD, associate lab director of the diagnostic and clinical division at the State Hygienic Lab, said the expansion will likely end up costing more than the initial $9.2 million estimate.
"We think it's going to be higher than that now, because when we were making the initial estimates of things, we were planning on leaving some spaces as what we call 'shell space,'" he said. "The CDC said, 'no shell space — if we're going to give you money, you're going to use the entire space.'"