Testimony of Gloria Waters of Boston University in Connection with Proposed Ordinance on BSL-4 Research in the City of Boston
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Gloria Waters and I am the Vice President and Associate Provost for Research at Boston University. I have been a resident of Boston for over 20 years—I live at 90 Commonwealth Ave. a little more than 2 miles from the NEIDL with my husband who is a physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
I oversee all of the University’s research endeavors and operations, including the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory on our medical campus. The safety of the NEIDL is therefore of utmost importance to me not only professionally in my role at Boston University but also personally to me and my family.
This afternoon our panel will also include Tom Robbins, Executive Director of Public Safety, who will address safety and security surrounding the NEIDL; Seth Jaffe of Holey and Foag, who will speak to the many levels of federal, state, and local scrutiny the NEIDL has received, including a comprehensive federal risk assessment showing the NEIDL to be safe to operate in the South End; Dr. Ronald Corley, Associate Director of the NEIDL and chair of the Microbiology Department, who will address the critical importance of this science and of doing it in Boston, as well as why it can be done safely with our culture of safety. Finally, Michelle Consalvo, assistant Vice President for Government and Community Relations will discuss the community benefits for the community and the City of Boston. Together, we will show that this vital, life-saving research can not only be done safely and securely in Boston, but should be.
To put the work at NEIDL into greater context, allow me to describe BU’s research enterprise, including our guiding philosophy of transparency, accountability, and safety. Boston University conducts about $340 million of research on our Charles River and Medical campuses and another $150 million through our affiliated teaching hospital- Boston Medical Center, every year. Both Boston University and BMC are committed to providing consistently excellent and accessible health services to all. An important focus of our Medical Campus is community-based care.
As a result of this focus, $100 million or over half of the research we conduct on the Medical Campus every year is centered on the treatment and cure of diseases which disproportionally affect the environmental justice neighborhoods of Roxbury, the South End and Dorchester. Those diseases include heart disease, obesity, hypertension, arthritis, HIV, and tuberculosis to name just a few.
In my more extensive written testimony I provided a few examples in detail of these programs that include The Black Women’s Health Study, the Framingham Heart study, and the Alzheimer’s Disease Center —Health Outreach Program for the Elderly.
Let me give you a few examples. The Black Women’s Health Study- a study led by BU faculty has been tracking the health of 59,000 African American Women since 1995. The focus of this study is on diseases with a high incidence in this population including obesity, diabetes, glaucoma, and breast cancer.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and African American men and women are more than twice as likely to die of heart disease and stroke. Boston University is a leader in the study of heart disease. Through the Framingham Heart study our faculty have been working for over 60 years on identifying those factors which contribute to cardiovascular disease. Many of the things which we know about cardiovascular disease today were a direct result of the work of our faculty on this study—for example, the connection between factors such as smoking, cholesterol, and blood pressure and heart disease. This work has had a direct influence on the treatment and management of heart disease as we know it today.
Our Alzheimer’s Disease Center —Health Outreach Program for the Elderly (HOPE) study, is a long-term study of memory and aging designed to help us improve our understanding of how memory and other thinking abilities change in people over the age of 65. A major factor which differentiates this study from others across the country is the priority to enroll African Americans, since little is known about Alzheimer’s disease in African American families.
Much of our community-based research provides valuable support to patients through educational and clinical programs. For example, our faculty are currently carrying out studies on community-based treatments for obesity, stroke, Parkinson’s Disease, and arthritis to name just a few. These studies provide much needed clinical care to patients.
As an institution, we also have certain peaks of research excellence, with infectious disease being one of them. Because of today’s unprecedented mobility, we are all vulnerable to potentially devastating infectious diseases that may have originated halfway across the globe. The NEIDL’s location on our Medical Campus in the South End will allow us to bring health science, and engineering expertise which exists elsewhere on our medical campus, as well as on the Charles River campus, to bear on the effort to find vaccines, treatments, and cures for people from Boston, the United States, and around the world who are impacted by these deadly infectious diseases.
We have world-class faculty carrying out ground breaking work making us poised to establish ourselves as a national leader in, among other areas, microbial systems and infectious diseases. For example, Professor Jim Collins, a recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” award and a Howard Huges Medical Institue from our Biomedical Engineering Department was recently awarded a five-year, multi-million dollar grant by the federal Defense Threat Reduction Agency to create synthetic probiotics to detect and treat infections. Professor Collins and his group have generated new knowledge about how antibiotics kill bacteria, about resistance mechanisms, and about the pathways involved in the life cycle of M. tuberculosis. They are developing new, targeted therapies for attacking bacterial infections, and are inventing diagnostic tools to help prevent the spread of new “superbugs.”
The NEIDL, a highly secure, state-of-the-art facility, will also serve as a training ground for the next generation of scientists and doctors in the care and treatment of such diseases, attracting top medical students from around the world to Boston, an affirmation of the city’s well-earned reputation as a bio-sciences and medical hub.
Beyond making important scientific contributions, the NEIDL will also strengthen the local economy. The facility is expected to bring in approximately $45 million a year in new federal funding which will actually translate into an additional $100 million in related economic activity given the multiplier effect. Allowing BSL-4 research in Boston means the city retains its fair share of research dollars, a share that is under unprecedented attack by individuals who want to relocate those dollars to other parts of the country. It also sends the clear message that Boston is open for business when it comes to scientific advancements and life-saving research.
BU is also the Boston Medical Center’s academic partner, which makes the University part of the largest health care safety net in the city. As a result of our location in an urban environment and our partnership with BMC, we attract researchers and students who are committed to solving the health problems of those who live in the inner city and practitioners who are committed to making inner city communities healthier. As our partnership with Boston Medical Center demonstrates, we are deeply invested in our host neighborhood, and in the city at large. In fact, in response to community concerns, we have increased a variety of security measures surrounding certain NEIDL operations, in many cases well beyond federal standards. Many of our own staffers, researchers, and students live in and around the South End, too.
Last year, Boston University was invited to join the prestigious and exclusive research group, the Association of American Universities, a recognition of the robust and advanced research being conducted on both of our campuses. We are one of only four Boston-area schools to have been offered membership, the others being Harvard, MIT, and Brandeis. Our membership in the AAU is a reflection of our commitment to conduct every piece of research, at the NEIDL and across the board, in a manner that is transparent to the public, responsive to the regulators, and accountable to the community. The way all responsible science should be done.
A strong, fundamental core principle of the University is that our research be open and that the results can be published. I can unequivocally state that not a shred of our research work is, or will be, classified. Every project is scrutinized and continuously monitored by multiple local and federal agencies. The details of all of our research proposals are available for public consumption. I take our commitment to safety and transparency extremely seriously, as does every one of my colleagues and staff members. This is part of scientific culture at BU and it emanates from the highest levels of the University on down. We wouldn’t think to have it any other way.
Thank you for your time. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.
If there’s nothing further, I’ll now turn the microphone over to my colleague Dr. Ron Corley, associate director of the NEIDL and chair of the microbiology department on the Medical Campus.
Gloria Waters
Vice President and Associate Provost for Research