[November 7, 2003] -
You may have heard something about Nebraska's efforts to attract homeland security projects to our state. It may have sounded a little farfetched at first, but it turns out Nebraska has the right people in the right places at the right time to contribute a lot to the fight against terrorists. Statewide's Brad Penner found out our state is right in the middle of homeland security work.
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Transcript of "Homeland Security - Nebraska's Role"
[Brad Penner/Reporting]
Othmer Hall is among the newest, shiniest, buildings on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Campus. It will be home to the Biological Process Development Facility. Here Mike Meagher and his team will search for a vaccine for botulism.
[Mike Meagher-Director, Biological Process Development Facility] When we develop a product like vaccines, it needs to be analyzed, characterized. You need to have a method to know how much you have when you're running a process. And that's what this lab is dedicated to.
[Brad Penner]
Much of the facility is still under construction. Meagher showed us around while explaining what they will do here. The process part involves isolating proteins for a particular use. In Meagher's case, proteins that create immunities against botulism.
[Mike Meagher]
Well we have to develop a process,4 or 5 steps, hat take something from 10 percent purity to 99.9 percent purity. Something that's pure enough that I can inject in you.
[Brad Penner]
Meagher's work isn't new. He started working on a botulism vaccine 9 years ago.
[Mike Meagher]
So all this work started out with the sole function of protecting the foot soldier. You know, the number of cases of botulism in the last ten years is maybe a hundred cases and so food poisoning is not a common problem that we need a vaccine with all the time. But uh Department of Defense realized the issue and obviously, you know, the world changed on 9-11.
[Brad Penner]
Suddenly the timetable shortened. The National Institutes of Health offered 11-million dollars to develop a botulism vaccine in 5 years. Other federal funds were already in place to pay for the biological process development facility. Meagher and UNL were prepared for the opportunity. They got the project, and more than a 6-million dollar share of the grant.
[Mike Meagher]
These labs exist in our old facility in food science. (Penner) But you're doing it on a larger scale....(Meagher) Absolutely. We have 3 times the space because things are growing, dramatically.
[Brad Penner]
The botulism project is just one example of how the State of Nebraska and the University of Nebraska were prepared to address Homeland Security needs at the federal level.
[Lt. Gov. Dave Heineman-Homeland Security Director]
We were ahead of the curve. This was two years before 1911, we were already thinking about what would happen if something like that occurred in Nebraska.
[Brad Penner]
Lt. Governor Dave Heineman doubles as Nebraska's Homeland Security Director.
[Lt. Gov. Heineman]
Well that work that we had done for two years, along with all that was happening at the University of Nebraska and in particular, the Medical Center, put us in a position, when 9-11 occurred, when we eventually formed the Department of Homeland Security, that we were ahead of other states throughout the country in the ability to move forward and to move quickly.
[Dr. Steven Hinrichs]
And when that occurred, then in fact, the breadth opened up, more people were brought to the table, and we're accomplishing things that have not been accomplished before.
[Brad Penner]
Dr. Steven Hinrichs directs the NU Center for Biosecurity, based at UNMC.
[Brad Penner]
About a year ago they got a visit from Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge.
[Tom Ridge- Homeland Security Secretary]
The reason that the Congressional delegation asked me to visit was to show me how far forward you have gone, not just in thinking about bioterrorism, but how you've been developing an infrastructure, physical, intellectual, technological, to deal with it. And they're interested soehow in tying the capacity here to some of the national needs we have.
[Brad Penner]
It was the first strong sign that Nebraska could be a Homeland Security player at the national level. Now there are more projects in the works than Hinrichs can even talk about.
[Dr. Hinrichs]
Some you'll hear about, some you won't hear about. Some will be funded and you'll see the announcement in the paper. Some will not be funded.
[Brad Penner]
A power point slide at a recent NU regents meeting showed just how much is going on.
[Dr. Hinrichs]
We also realized that a lot of what we've done is very complex and there are over-lapping initiatives and programs. So we want to provide with some update on where we are at with this process.
[Brad Penner]
It's a fast-moving and ever-changing process. Back in August, Nebraska's Homeland Security team showed off the rapid response lab at UNMC.
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control were scouting locations for a vaguely defined regional center. A place that could serve as an auxiliary or backup laboratory in case of a bioterrorist attack or an outbreak of disease.
[Joe Henderson-CDC Associate Director]
We're trying to build a system of systems in the nation so that we can rapidly detect and characterize and confirm an event and then respond effectively to contain whatever the event might be.
[Brad Penner]
They also learned more about Nebraska's approach to bioterrorism. Dr. Richard Raymond is Nebraska's Chief Medical Officer.
[Dr. Raymond]
We wanted them to know that we were taking those bioterrorism dollars and using them wisely in Nebraska and show them what we've created that other people have talked about. So we spent one day with those two gentlemen just showing them the public health system for Nebraska and what we have built.
[Brad Penner]
The CDC officials said Nebraska's cooperative approach between government, academia, and the private sector is a model for other states.
[Dr. Edward Thompson-CDC Deputy Director]
Because we've seen enough in this visit to know that you have things to show us and to show other states. We have already used the "Nebraska example" in describing how things can be made to work. We've already done that, before coming here. We'll do it in more ways because you've shown us more things.
[Dr. Hinrichs]
We put on the table what we thought we needed. They responded by saying, that's interesting, you're right, but you need to go beyond that. Because Nebraska is doing much more than what we're talking about.
[Brad Penner]
Nebraska's smallpox vaccination program demonstrated the coordination between state and local agencies on a Homeland Security project. Now the challenge is to find a way to effectively package and deliver the Nebraska Model for Homeland Security.
[Dr. Hinrichs]
So it could be a training site where we will bring in federal or other state agency personnel and show them how it works. We may involve them in actual day to day operations, so it may not be in a building, it may be where the action is in the state, in a city, or in a county.
[Dr. Raymond]
I feel very optimistic that something's going to come out of this. Exactly what, I don't know, cause it's a different image than what we had before the CDC came to visit. But it's a bigger image.
[Brad Penner]
Trucks and trains that travel through Nebraska would likely be slowed down by a terrorist attack. Important freight, such as coal for power plants, might be delayed. The impact on the economy could be tremendous.
The Department of Homeland Security wants to know just how big the impact might be. Nebraska is one of four finalists for a center that would investigate that question. Dr. Gerald Wagner would head up the project at the University's Peter Kiewit Institute in Omaha.
[Dr. Hinrichs ]
Gerald Wagner is a world expert on development of advance decision support systems. And what that means is he's able to build into-um intelligent systems that analyze the outcome and predict what is going to happen when say a bridge collapses or an interstate um is um blockaded or if an airport is shut down.
[Brad Penner]
In this case, the "Nebraska Model" includes private transportation, energy, and financial companies.
[Dr. Hinrichs]
We're not just protecting ourselves here at the medical center, we're trying to protect and be involved in evaluating the impact on our economy. And therefore the private sector is the best group to involve in that. And they have content experts that know the business. They can provide us evaluation, they can provide us data. And then we build systems that analyze that data and take it into daily decision making for our policy makers.
[Brad Penner]
It's clear Nebraska's made a good impression on some key federal officials.
But work on the political side of the process must continue.
[Lt. Gov. Heineman]
We have to do a little bragging about our state to federal officials. This is not something Nebraskans do very well normally, but what we're trying to do through emails, through letters, through personal contacts, through bringing key federal officials through the state, let them know this capacity uh that we have out here. And when they come and see it, they are amazed.
[Brad Penner]
Mike Meagher gives a lot of credit to Nebraska's Congressional Delegation for getting the funds for the Biological Process Development Facility.
[Mike Meagher]
What the state doesn't know is this facility, that's state of the art, didn't cost the state a single penny, zero, for the infrastructure and the people doing the work.
[Brad Penner]
Without this space, and the equipment that soon will be operating here, Meagher never would have received the grant to develop the botulism vaccine.
[Mike Meagher]
We wouldn't be a player. We couldn't play with the big boys. No way. But with this facility, we are the big boys, so to speak.
[Brad Penner]
But as others see what's done here, the University's reputation grows.
[Mike Meagher]
From my perspective, tremendously. I mean, you've got a facility that's state-of-the-art that'll be-there'll be very few in the United States at any university that can complete against us or to be able to compare what we can do.
[Brad Penner]
New facilities or research projects would mean more jobs and a multi-million dollar boost to Nebraska's economy. The long term benefit may be the atmosphere of cooperation between the campuses of the NU system, state government, and the private sector.
[Dr. Hinrichs]
I think everybody realizes, this is an opportunity. And so if there's history that has blocked cooperation, let it lay. Move beyond it. Let's get on with it. Let's find solutions. And that's what we're doing.
[Brad Penner]
With that spirit, Dr. Hinrichs is confident Nebraska will land some major bioterrorism preparedness projects, as well as more specialized research grants. Reporting for Statewide, I'm Brad Penner.
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