NIH: Building vibrations under control

New measurements taken at the Biomedical Research Center for the National Institute on Aging have determined that building vibration levels will be low enough to allow most research to proceed as usual, despite previous concerns that vibrations from elevators and other sources might disrupt the use of more than 150 pieces of sophisticated equipment.

"[T]he latest data indicate that the facility will be capable of accommodating state-of-the-art biomedical research," National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias A. Zerhouni wrote last month in response to questions from Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), who raised concerns about the facility last year.

The new facility, scheduled to open early this year, is currently under construction at Johns Hopkins University's Bayview Campus in Southeast Baltimore. It is designed to replace the adjacent Gerontology Research Center (GRC), which was built in the 1950s and is in need of renovation.

Earlier reports indicated excessive vibration problems in the new building from elevators, ventilation shafts, and even foot traffic might hamper use of more than 150 laser scanning confocal and other microscopes, lasers, cell counters, imagers, and other sensitive equipment, jeopardizing intramural research activities in more than a third of laboratory space in the facility.

However, measurements conducted in November 2006, after concrete floors had cured and interior and exterior walls had been installed, revealed that "the facility fully complies with the design criteria," Zerhouni wrote.

Most pieces of sensitive equipment already employ vibration-isolation tables, said Colleen Barros, NIH deputy director for management. Before they are moved, each will be tested to determine whether its existing isolation system -- which costs between $3,500 and $60,000 -- needs to be upgraded. Some equipment might not work adequately in the new environment, even with vibration tables, Barros said. Other equipment, when outfitted with a vibration-reduction system, may be too large to fit in planned lab space. In such cases, the equipment will remain in the old GRC building.

Barros refuted a news report published over the weekend claiming that the GRC building would require "extensive" renovations to accommodate any equipment left behind. "The [GRC] building is an old building and is in need of renovation, to be sure," Barros said. "But should any piece of research [equipment] need to be housed there, it would still be able to function," she told The Scientist.

When completed, the $250-million 10-story Bayview facility will provide more than 500,000 square feet of laboratory, vivarium, clinical research, library, and office space for nearly 1,000 scientists and staff from NIA and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

In February 2006 senior NIA staff scientists involved in the project expressed concerns about construction and cost-cutting measures to NIH managers after tests in August 2005 predicted building vibration levels would be excessive. But measurements taken in April 2006 and June 2006, as construction proceeded, indicated the building was in much better condition than had been predicted. Measurements taken in November 2006 found the nearly completed building would meet NIH and industry vibration standards of not more than 2,000 micro-inch per second, Zerhouni said.

"We have studies scheduled over the next few months to test the vibration characteristics of certain equipment and see how they might fare in this new building," said NIA communications director Vicky Cahan. "What goes where and when hinges on these studies," she told The Scientist. "It's an ongoing process."

Mikulski is satisfied with Zerhouni's report, said communications director Melissa Schwartz. "Senator Mikulski feels that NIH's review of the vibration issue at Bayview is complete and thorough," Schwartz told The Scientist in an Email. "She looks forward to the completion of this much-needed project."

Ted Agres
tagres@the-scientist.com

Links within this article:

Biomedical Research Center
http://www.hopkinsbayview.org/opa/whatsnew/041008nih.html

Letter from NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni to Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Dec. 15, 2006
http://www.nih.gov/icd/od/foia/mikulski12152006.pdf

"Mikulski Says Answers Needed on Conflicting Status of Nation's Health Research Facilities," Press Release, Nov. 16, 2006.
http://mikulski.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=265958

Clinical research at GerontologyResearchCenter, NIA
http://www.grc.nia.nih.gov/branches/crb/crb.htm

T. Agres, "NIH lab space plagued by vibrations," Oct. 18, 2006
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/25102

J. Rockoff, "Vibration could send work back to old lab," The Baltimore Sun, Jan. 7, 2007.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.nih07jan07,0,3970258.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

J. Rockoff, "New lab built for NIH vibrates," The Baltimore Sun, Sunday Oct. 15, 2006
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.lab15oct15,0,5809862.story?coll=bal-home-headlines