What Orion, South America’s first lab to study the world’s deadliest viruses, will look like

A country in the region will soon take an unprecedented scientific step. And Brazil will host the first laboratory maximum biological security in South America which will have facilities that are unique in the world.

The aim of this ambitious project is to advanced research on various pathogens such as virus pathogenic bacteria, fungi and parasites in addition to its effects on human health.

According to the Brazilian Center for Energy and Materials Research (CNPEM) the entity that oversees the project, will not only benefit the development of diagnostic methods, vaccines and epidemiological strategies, but could also strengthen the Brazilian health system and the sovereignty of this country to face future health crises.

While some have expressed concern about the cost involved in creating a laboratory of this magnitude, others are excited that there is a facility in South America dedicated exclusively to the safe study of deadly pathogens.

The laboratory complex, called Orion, is being built on the CNPEM campus in the municipality of Campinas, 100 kilometers from São Paulo. .

The project is also located there Sirius a 68,000 square meter particle accelerator with the best research infrastructure ever built in Brazil.

In early July, the President of Brazil, Lula da Silva went to the CNPEM to celebrate the ceremony of laying the first stone of the laboratory.

“Orion is another work of the federal government, within the New PAC, for advanced research on medicines and the production of vaccines,” wrote the Brazilian president on his X account (formerly Twitter).

“Brazil once again has a government that believes in science and the future” he added.

While Brazil’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Luciana Santos, noted that “Orion will allow our country to monitor, isolate and research biological agents to develop diagnostic methods, vaccines and treatments for diseases.”

Construction of the infrastructure is expected to be completed in 2026 and operations will begin in 2028. Until June of this year, the Brazilian government had allocated 240 million reais to the project, and an additional 760 million reais are planned for 2026, which represents a total of 1,000 million reais (nearly 180 million dollars).

According to CNPEM, Orion will have an area of ​​30,000 square meters that will include business areas, an animal research center, advanced bioimaging techniques and biosafety laboratories. level 4 (BSL-4) but also with others level 2 (BSL-2) And 3 (BSL-3) .

Level 4 laboratories, which will be the hallmark of the Brazilian project, are those that provide the greatest security and containment. They are specially designed for scientists to study the most deadly pathogens that exist in the world, which can be easily transmitted through the air and which can pose a great danger to human life because there is no vaccine or treatment to combat them.

In view of the above, researchers must follow strict measures when in these facilities. Their entry, for example, must be through hermetically sealed rooms or through a master key system.

Every time they enter or leave the rooms, they must take a shower and change all their clothes. Another required measure is the wearing of protective suits specially designed for these places, which also have an autonomous air supply.

According to a report published by Global BioLabs in 2023, there are 69 maximum biosafety laboratories worldwide. Of this total, only 51 are operational, while 18 are under planning or construction, including Orion. The vast majority of sites are located in Europe (26), Asia (20) and North America (15).

Flávio Fonseca, a virologist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, explained to the scientific journal Nature that a laboratory of this type “is indisputable” today, knowing that in the last century we have seen how “the number of pandemic epidemics” has increased.

But beyond that, the researcher believes that the project could grant greater scientific autonomy to Brazil, since researchers would have the opportunity to study local pathogens in these facilities, instead of having to travel to laboratories abroad.

Fernando Spilki, a veterinary virologist at Feevale University in Novo Hamburgo, also recognizes that Orion’s presence is necessary because in recent years we have seen an increase in logging in the Amazon rainforest, which at the same time translates into an increased risk of humans coming into contact with animals that could harbor harmful viruses or bacteria.

At the same time, advancing climate change has pushed many species out of their habitat and into populated cities.

“We need a laboratory like this to be able to give quick answers” to these challenges, Spilki told Nature.

Orion will not only become in the coming years the first maximum biological containment laboratory located in South America, but it will also be the first in the world to be equipped with a synchrotron that is, a particle accelerator capable of generating high-power radiation to take images.

Thanks to Sirius, the particle accelerator on the CNPEM campus, Orion researchers will have the opportunity to analyze the structures of viruses and microbes, in addition to studying how they infect cells and tissues.

Although the cost of the laboratory raises concerns, the director of CNPEM, Antônio José Roque da Silva, assured the scientific journal that it is much lower than others that have been built. In the United States, for example, the average cost of a facility with these characteristics “is about a billion dollars.”

“We are using a fifth of this amount to build one that allows greater autonomy in research,” said Roque da Silva, who then added that what could be complex is the maintenance of the laboratory, for which they have already started looking for funds in different entities.