PEARL CITY — The University of Hawai'i-Manoa has applied for a $25 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to build a regional biosafety laboratory on Waimano Ridge.

Work at the Level-3 lab would involve monitoring infectious diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus, dengue fever and avian influenza, for early detection and response.

NIH is expected to award grants in the next two or three weeks. It has nine Level-3 regional biocontainment laboratories and two national biocontainment labs but none west of Fort Collins, Colo.

The project would be a private-public partnership involving the UH medical school's new Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, the lead grantee; Hawaii Biotech; Hawaii Life Sciences Council; U.S. Department of Defense; state Department of Health; state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism; and Enterprise Honolulu.

The alliance group presented an overview of its proposed regional biosafety lab to the Pearl City Neighborhood Board at its meeting on Tuesday. "Our whole goal is to make sure the community is involved and informed," said Ann Chung, the community outreach liaison for Hawaii Biotech and Hawaii Life Sciences Council.

It's an effort to avoid mistakes of the past by the state Health Department regarding Waimano Ridge that alienated residents and community leaders, leading to the passage this year of Senate Bill 1473 which requires the Health Department to provide at least 90 days notice to affected neighborhood boards and legislators for projects on Waimano Ridge.

A task force made up of representatives from the alliance group, neighborhood board and area lawmakers, which will have input in the planning and design of the lab, is being organized, according to Chung.

Dr. Duane Gubler, director of the Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine & Infectious Diseases, said the partners share a common goal in addressing the threat that infectious diseases pose to Hawai'i, and the regional lab would serve the needs of all parties.

Hawaii Biotech is developing drugs and vaccines while Hawaii Life Sciences Council, DBEDT and Enterprise Honolulu were involved in creating the roadmap for a biotech industry in Hawai'i, Gubler said.

The Department of Defense does infectious disease surveillance and the state Health Department is responsible for early detection and rapid response, added Gubler.

Honolulu is particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases because it is one of 25 central cities in the world airline network and most infectious disease emergencies during the past 12 years have originated in Asia, Gubler said in the presentation to the neighborhood board.

"Hawai'i does not have the adequate capability to detect, respond or prevent introduced infectious diseases," he added. "It is not a matter of if but when a serious infectious disease will be introduced to Hawai'i."

The proposed regional lab will be a one-story, stand-alone facility more than 65,000 square feet, custom-built to ensure safety, said Gubler. It should be at Waimano Ridge because the site offers enough space to meet federal setback requirements, the state owns the land and it would be near the existing state Health Department Laboratory.

If funded, it would take about 18 months for an environmental assessment to be completed before groundbreaking can occur, said Gubler. The assessment would include community input and a review of alternative sites. The completion date would be 2010.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.