Missouri is building a new $183 million state laboratory that will be home to several state agencies. The multi-story 250,000 square-foot center will be housed next to the current State Public Health Laboratory in Jefferson City, which Mike Massman oversees.
He told Missourinet that the vision is to support collaboration among the other participating state agencies.
“Our current facility has biosafety level 3 laboratories,” Massman said. “That allows us to do certain testing. We’re not building any of that in this new facility, but it allows us to free up space with the additional space we have to where if one of the other state agencies needs to operate in that type of environment, they can come back to our existing facility and do work there.”
Massman praised the effort headed by Gov. Mike Parson because it allows state agencies to move into new labs and replace outdated existing ones.
“For some of us, in state public health laboratory, we’re going to be adding new space for our next generation sequencing, which allows us to better respond to outbreaks in the state by monitoring and detecting those as well as monitoring for new variants that might be occurring in emerging diseases,” he explained.
The effort will be home to several state agencies and provide a singular approach to human, animal, environmental, and criminal testing. The approach will enable government agencies to share information, expertise, equipment, supplies, and support services.
Massman laid out why residents should care.
“With all these agencies and the special testing they do, whether it be ensuring safe drinking water, providing newborn screening for infants, maintaining Missouri wildlife, protecting the Missouri livestock industry, or even establishing criminality in an investigation, the whole effort is for Missourians,” he said.
The other participating agencies include the Departments of Conservation, Agriculture, Natural Resources, Public Safety, and Health and Senior Services.
Construction is set to conclude in 2026.
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