Alliance Contracted For First Of Kind Novel Autopsy Lab
Alliance Biosciences, a division of Alliance Engineering, Inc., was contracted by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of VA to certify and commission the nation’s first newly-constructed high-containment autopsy lab. The lab was constructed to BSL3 standards to accommodate potential autopsy cases that may involve dangerous infectious agents. This lab is part of the new Forensics Suite in Manassas, VA.
As most BSL3 labs are designed around a specific pathogen, and subsequent risk assessment, this lab presented a unique challenge to certify to BSL3 standards- there is no specific pathogen that the lab was designed to accommodate. Rather, this lab had to be certified without a formal pathogen-specific risk assessment, as it may see the likes of many different pathogens during autopsies.
Alliance Biosciences was contracted specifically due to the expertise of Dr. Jonathan Richmond, formerly with the CDC, who is part of the Alliance Biosciences’ core team. The certification of this novel facility is scheduled for early July. Alliance Biosciences’ approach to certifying this lab is likely set a precedent for the design, commissioning and certification of other novel high-containment facilities where pathogen-specific risk assessments are not practical.
