Rocky Mountain Laboratories

RML evolved as a result of research on Rocky Mountain spotted fever that began around 1900, in the Bitterroot Valley. A deadly disease of unknown origin plagued early settlers of the valley. It was known locally as "black measles" because of its severe, dark rash. Montana researchers were working in the area in makeshift cabins and tents.

RML formally began as the Montana Board of Entomology Laboratory. It was opened in 1928 by the Montana State Board of Entomology to study Rocky Mountain spotted fever and the ticks, Dermacentor andersoni, that carry it. Local opposition to the "tick lab" was strong, as residents worried ticks would escape the laboratory and cause an outbreak in the community. To allay their fears, the original laboratory building featured a small moat around its perimeter. In 1932, after spotted fever was diagnosed in other states, the federal government bought the facility and renamed it Rocky Mountain Laboratory. The laboratory expanded, adding faculty to study zoonotic diseases including typhus, tularemia, and Q-fever.{{cite journal |last1=Hettrick |first1=Gary R. |title=Vaccine Production in the Bitterroot Valley during World War II: How Rocky Mountain Laboratory Protected American Forces from Yellow Fever |journal=Montana The Magazine of Western History |date=Winter 2012 |volume=62 |issue=4 |pages=47–59 |jstor=24414669 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24414669}}

During World War II, the United States Public Health Service used the laboratory to manufacture Yellow fever vaccine. When the human serum–base vaccine caused an outbreak of Hepatitis B that infected more than 350,000 U.S. soldiers, two researchers at the laboratory, Dr. Mason Hargett and Harry Burruss, developed an aqueous-base vaccine that combined distilled water with virus grown in chicken eggs. By the end of the war, the laboratory distributed more than 1 million doses of the improved yellow fever vaccine.

In the post-war decades, the laboratory broadened its scope to study chlamydia trachomatis and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies including scrapie, mad cow disease, and chronic wasting disease. In 1982, Dr. Willy Burgdorfer discovered Borrelia burgdorferi, the tick-borne bacterium that causes Lyme disease.

In the aftermath of September 11 attacks, Anthony Fauci convinced President George W. Bush to set up a bio-defense program and build a BSL-4 facility at RML, since the Bethesda campus of NIAID did not have the necessary real estate to build a facility. Fauci visited during the construction of the BSL4 lab in 2006. Fauci said the electronic age made it seem as if RML is just across the street from his Bethesda, Maryland NIAID campus.{{Cite journal |title=Rocky Mountain Labs: NIAID's Montana campus |last=Honey |journal=The Journal of Clinical Investigation |date=2009 |volume=119 |issue=2 |pages=240 |doi=10.1172/jci38528 |pmid=19244628 |pmc=2631311 |language=en }}

Around 2009, Heinz Feldmann and Vincent Munster relocated to RML. In 2011, RML published its first transmissible vaccine paper for "disseminating" an Ebola vaccine to prevent Ebola transmission in wildlife populations.{{cite journal |last=Tsuda |first=Y. |date=2011 |title=A Replicating Cytomegalovirus-Based Vaccine Encoding a Single Ebola Virus Nucleoprotein CTL Epitope Confers Protection against Ebola Virus |journal= PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases|volume=5 |issue=8 |pages=e1275 |doi=10.1371/journal.pntd.0001275 |doi-access=free |pmid=21858240 |pmc=3153429 }} In 2018, RML won two DARPA projects for transmissible animal vaccines.{{cite web |url=https://www.darpa.mil/news/2019/medical-preparedness |title=DARPA PREEMPT program |publisher=darpa.mil |accessdate=19 Feb 2019}} Fauci's last visit to RML was in October 2019.{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/opinion/coronavirus-rocky-mountain-laboratories.html |title=Is the Cure for Covid in the Rocky Mountains? |last=Warzel |website=The New York Times |date=7 May 2020 |language=en |access-date=2020-05-07}}{{Cite web |url=https://archive.ph/vgoGN |title=RML to host presentation on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases |website=ravallirepublic.com |access-date=2019-10-19}}

Since the 1980s, RML has used American mink (Neogale vison) for disease models.{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230708102424/https://history.nih.gov/display/history/Bloom%2C+Marshall+2022 |title=Dr. Marshall Bloom Oral History |publisher=niaid.nih.gov |accessdate=6 July 2023}} Mink are not found in China but are a SARS-CoV-2 transmission model.{{cite journal |last1=Harrington |first1=L. |date=2021 |title=Wild American mink (Neovison vison) may pose a COVID-19 threat |journal=Front Ecol Environ|volume=19 |issue=5 |pages=266–267 |doi=10.1002/fee.2344 |pmid=34149325 |pmc=8207089 |bibcode=2021FrEE...19..266H }}{{cite journal |last1=Munnink |first1=B. |date=2020 |title=Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 on mink farms between humans and mink and back to humans |journal=Science|volume=371 |issue=6525 |pages=172–177 |doi=10.1126/science.abe5901 |pmid=33172935 |pmc=7857398 }}

Around 2011, RML started using Syrian Golden hamster's (Mesocricetus auratus) for disease transmission research.{{cite journal |last=de Wit |first=E. |date=2011 |title=Nipah virus transmission in a hamster model |journal= PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases|volume=5 |issue=12 |pages=e1432 |doi=10.1371/journal.pntd.0001432 |doi-access=free |pmid=22180802 |pmc=3236726 }} By 2020, the laboratory used Syrian hamsters as models for self-spreading bat vaccines.{{Cite web|url=https://usrtk.org/covid-19-origins/colorado-state-university-documents-on-bat-pathogen-research/|title=Colorado State University documents on bat pathogen research |website=usrtk.org |access-date=2021-01-21 |author=Suryanarayanan|date=21 January 2021 }} SARS-CoV-2 transmits efficiently in Syrian hamsters.{{cite journal |last1=Yinda |first1=C. |date=9 Jan 2024 |title=Airborne transmission efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 in Syrian hamsters is not influenced by environmental conditions |journal=Nature|volume=2 |issue=1 |page=2 |doi=10.1038/s44298-023-00011-3 |pmid=40295780 |pmc=11702665 }}

In 2017, RML started a deer mouse (Peromyscus) colony.{{cite journal | doi=10.3390/v13061006 | doi-access=free | title=Continuing Orthohantavirus Circulation in Deer Mice in Western Montana | date=2021 | last1=Williamson | first1=Brandi N. | last2=Meade-White | first2=Kimberly | last3=Boardman | first3=Kristin | last4=Schulz | first4=Jonathan E. | last5=Telford | first5=Carson T. | last6=Figueroa Acosta | first6=Dania M. | last7=Bushmaker | first7=Trenton | last8=Fischer | first8=Robert J. | last9=Rosenke | first9=Kyle | last10=Feldmann | first10=Heinz | journal=Viruses | volume=13 | issue=6 | page=1006 | pmid=34072112 | pmc=8226622 }} The BSL-4 laboratory had used deer mice as a model for research on self-spreading vaccines.{{cite journal |last1=Nuismer |first1=S. |date=21 September 2020 |title=Bayesian estimation of Lassa virus epidemiological parameters: Implications for spillover prevention using wildlife vaccination |journal= PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases|volume=14 |issue=9 |pages=e0007920 |doi=10.1371/journal.pntd.0007920 |doi-access=free |pmid=32956349 |pmc=7529244 }}{{cite journal |last1=Scudellari |first1=M. |date=14 November 2016 |title=Can transmissible vaccines have a major role in eradicating disease? |journal=PNAS|volume=14 |issue=9 |pages=e0007920 |doi=10.1371/journal.pntd.0007920 |doi-access=free |pmid=32956349 |pmc=7529244 }} SARS-CoV-2 transmits efficiently in deer mice.{{cite journal |last1=Griffin |first1=B. |date=14 June 2021 |title=SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission in the North American deer mouse |journal=Nature|volume=12 |issue=1 |page=3612 |doi=10.1038/s41467-021-23848-9 |pmid=34127676 |pmc=8203675 |bibcode=2021NatCo..12.3612G }}{{cite journal |last1=Fagre |first1=A. |date=21 May 2021 |title=SSARS-CoV-2 infection, neuropathogenesis and transmission among deer mice: Implications for spillback to New World rodents |journal= PLOS Pathogens|volume=17 |issue=5 |pages=e1009585 |doi=10.1371/journal.ppat.1009585 |doi-access=free |pmid=34010360 |pmc=8168874 }}

In 2018, Vincent Munster and Ralph S. Baric infected Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) with Bat SARS-like coronavirus WIV1.{{cite journal |last1=Van Doremalen |first1=N. |date=19 Dec 2018 |title=SARS-Like Coronavirus WIV1-CoV Does Not Replicate in Egyptian Fruit Bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) |journal= Viruses|volume=10 |issue=12 |page=727 |doi=10.3390/v10120727 |doi-access=free |pmid=30572566 |pmc=6316779 }} By 2020, the laboratory used Egyptian fruit bats as a model for DARPA PREEMPT self-spreading bat vaccines. SARS-CoV-2 transmits efficiently in Egyptian fruit bats.{{cite journal |last1=Schlottau |first1=K. |date=September 2020 |title=SARS-CoV-2 in fruit bats, ferrets, pigs, and chickens: an experimental transmission study |journal=Lancet|volume=1 |issue=5 |pages=e218–e225 |doi=10.1016/S2666-5247(20)30089-6 |pmid=32838346 |pmc=7340389 }}

From 2018-20, Munster's lab was working on coronavirus cell entry.{{Cite web|url=https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=55222

|last=Letko |website=nih.gov |title=Studying Coronavirus Cell Entry with Functional Viromics |date=14 November 2024 |access-date=2024-11-14}} In 2020, Munster's lab had identified the cell entry of SARS-CoV-2.{{cite journal | doi=10.1038/s41564-020-0688-y | title=Functional assessment of cell entry and receptor usage for SARS-CoV-2 and other lineage B betacoronaviruses | date=2020 | last1=Letko | first1=Michael | last2=Marzi | first2=Andrea | last3=Munster | first3=Vincent | journal=Nature Microbiology | volume=5 | issue=4 | pages=562–569 | pmid=32094589 | pmc=7095430 }} Kristian G. Andersen replied, "It’s unbelievably fast, almost too fast to imagine."{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/story/can-a-database-of-animal-viruses-help-predict-the-next-pandemic/|title=Can a Database of Animal Viruses Help Predict the Next Pandemic? |last=Molteni |website=wired.com |access-date=2020-02-15}} In February 2020, electron microscope images of SARS-CoV-2 were collected at RML.{{Cite web |url=https://missoulian.com/news/local/hamilton-lab-releases-new-images-of-coronavirus/article_0ffa9028-2f9a-5994-9a76-b6faf2c9f1d8.html |title=Hamilton lab releases new images of coronavirus |last=Missoulian |website=missoulian.com |language=en |access-date=2020-02-12}}

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Category:National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Category:Hamilton, Montana

Category:Medical research institutes in the United States