Sandia National Laboratories’ Global Chemical and Biological Security program (SNL/GCBS) has an on-going mission to enhance laboratory biosafety and biosecurity. SNL/GCBS has developed robust biosafety and biosecurity risk assessment methodologies and tools to aid laboratories seeking to implement biosecurity as advocated in the recently released World Health Organization’s “Biorisk Management: Laboratory Biosecurity Guidance.” BioRAM Security (BioRAM) is one of these tools. This tool was designed to complement the “Laboratory Biosecurity Handbook” written by Ren Salerno and Jennifer Gaudioso (Salerno, 2007). BioRAM was originally developed under the Sandia National Laboratories Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) process and has been updated with support from the US Department of Health Centers for Disease Control Select Agent Program, the US Department of State Biosecurity Engagement Program, and by funding from Sandia National Laboratories’ Associated Laboratories Directors.
For the purposes of this paper, a Biocontainment facility is a laboratory, production facility, or similar building that handles contagious biological materials in a safe and responsible manner. This specialized facility, also called a containment facility or a high containment facility reduces the potential for biological agents to be released into the environment, provides a safe work environment for the employees, and supports good laboratory practices.