Institute of Applied Biochemistry

{{Short description|Laboratory in Omutninsk, Kirov, Russia}}

The Institute of Applied Biochemistry is a research laboratory and bioweapons production facility located in Omutninsk, Kirov Oblast.{{cite news |title=Omutninsk |url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/omutninsk.htm |access-date=4 February 2021 |publisher=GlobalSecurity.org}} For a time in the 1980s, the facility was directed by Ken Alibek.{{cite news |last1=Preston |first1=Richard |title=THE BIOWEAPONEERS |work=pp. 52-65 |publisher=The New Yorker |date=9 March 1998}}

Wild rodents like rats that live in the woods outside the factory are chronically infected with the "Schu-4 military strain" of tularemia due to a "small leak" in a basement pipe found in the twilight years of the USSR to be dripping a viral suspension into the ground.