U of Tennessee health center lands $3.2M for lab upgrade

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The University of Tennessee Health Science Center has landed $3.2 million in federal money to upgrade a laboratory used for research on infectious diseases.

In a news release, the Memphis campus says the the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded the money for equipment and infrastructure improvements at the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory.

The school says the lab is one of about a dozen nationwide commissioned after 9/11 by the institute to study very contagious pathogens as a safeguard against bioterrorism.

The laboratory opened in 2009. It has played a role in research related to COVID-19.