The objective is to establish national biological defense proficiency by developing and improving precise and accurate tests for the rapid diagnosis as well as for identification and characterzation, of different biological agents and toxins using various methods. Spiez Laboratory is assigned to fulfill this task and to close any gaps to reach national biological defense excellence. To improve the national biological defense capabilities of Switzerland, Spiez Laboratory has funds available to run a dedicated program with the goal of added research and development mainly benefitting detection, diagnostic and identification techniques. Part of the program is conducted under contract with national and international industries, academic institutions as well as domestic and foreign governmental agencies, as detailed in paragraph 5.
Spiez Laboratory is part of the Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP within the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports DDPS of the Swiss Confederation. Spiez Laboratory is the Swiss center of expertise in protection against nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) threats and hazards. Besides delivering its expertise to relevant stakeholders, the Biology Division of Spiez Laboratory is concerned with the identification of biological agents and toxins, as well as supports military biological protection units. The Biology Division has expertise in the fields of virology, bacteriology and toxinology, as well as biosafety and biosecurity.
Spiez Laboratory possesses a high containment facility that allows for the safe handling of biological agents of all risk groups. It is the only BSL4 high containment facility in Switzerland holding a license which is not limited to diagnostic purposes. It serves towards the comprehensive detection and identification of human pathogens. This enables Spiez Laboratory to act in the Regional Laboratory Network as both a Regional Competence Center and as a National Reference Center / National Reference Laboratory having all necessary capabilities and capacities at hand.
For additional information and more on the vision of a world without weapons of mass destruction please visit:
https://www.labor-spiez.ch/enindex.htm
Swiss Confederation, Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports DDPS, Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP.
10 %
All contracted research and development of the program is supervised by Spiez Laboratory. Please also refer to paragraph 1 above for additional details. The contractors part of the program in 2020 were as follows:
- Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich – ETHZ
Functional Genomics Center Zurich – FGCZ
Winterthurerstrasse 190
CH-8057 Zürich
Switzerland
Project title: „Next Generation Sequencing“
- Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich – ETHZ
Center for Security Studies – CSS
Haldeneggsteig 4, IFW
CH-8092 Zürich
Switzerland
Project title: „Analysis of trends in science and policy“
- Robert Koch-Institut – RKI
Zentrum für Biologische Toxine – ZBS3
Nordufer 20
DE-13353 Berlin
Germany
Project title: „Staphylococcus enterotoxins analysis in food“
- Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana – SUPSI
Laboratorio Microbiologia applicata
Via Mirasole 22a
CH-6500 Bellinzona
Switzerland
Project title: “Vector Surveillance”
Project title: „Development of mass spectrometric sequencing procedures to identify biomarkers“
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute – SwissTPH
Socinstrasse 57
CH-4051 Basel
Switzerland
Project title: „Next Generation Sequencing”
- Universität Bern – UniBE
Department for BioMedical Research – DBMR
Sahli-Haus 2
CH-3010 Bern
Switzerland
Project title: „Assessment of tenacity of highly pathogenic viruses, antivirals and inactivation strategies as well as evaluation of clinical samples”
- Universität Bern – UniBE
Interfaculty Bioinformatics Unit – IBU
Baltzerstrasse 6
CH-3012 Bern
Switzerland
Project title: „Functional characterization of Francisella tularensis holarctica genotypes by means of proteomics“
Project title: „Implementation of proteogenomic procedures to identify and characterize risk group 3 bacteria“
- Université de Lausanne / Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois – Unil / CHUV
Institut de microbiologie – IMUL
Rue du Bugnon 48
CH-1011 Lausanne
Switzerland
Project title: „Novel therapeutic strategies against highly pathogenic viruses”
Project title: „Identification and evaluation of antiviral substances against Hantavirus infections”
- Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften – ZHAW
Institut für Chemie und Biologische Chemie – ICBC
Einsiedlerstrasse 31
CH-8820 Wädenswil
Switzerland
Project title: „Detection of proteinaceous toxins“
Please refer to Form A, part 2 (iii).