View source for Rocky Mountain Laboratories

{{Infobox government agency
|agency_name     = Rocky Mountain Laboratories
|logo            = US-NIH-NIAID-Logo.svg
|logo_width      = 180
|logo_caption    =
|picture         = 
|picture_width   = 
|picture_caption =
|formed          = {{start date|1928}}<ref name="nih">{{cite web|url=https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/rocky-mountain-laboratories|title=Rocky Mountain Laboratories Overview, NIAID, NIH|publisher=niaid.nih.gov|accessdate=2016-10-28}}</ref>
|preceding1      = Hygienic Laboratory
|dissolved       =
|superseding     =
|jurisdiction    =
|headquarters    = [[Hamilton, Montana]]
|employees       = 400<ref name="nih">{{cite web|url=https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/rocky-mountain-laboratories|title=Rocky Mountain Laboratories Overview, NIAID, NIH|publisher=niaid.nih.gov|accessdate=2016-10-28}}</ref>
|budget          =
|parent_agency   = [[National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease]], [[National Institutes of Health]], [[United States Department of Health & Human Services]]
|child1_agency   = 
|website         = [https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/division-intramural-research-overview]
|footnotes       =
|region_code     = 
}}

'''Rocky Mountain Laboratories''' (RML) is part of the [[NIH Intramural Research Program]] and is located in [[Hamilton, Montana]]. Operated by the [[National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases]], RML conducts research on maximum containment pathogens such as [[Ebola]] as well as research on [[prion]]s and intracellular pathogens such as ''[[Coxiella burnetii]]'' and ''[[Francisella tularensis]]''.<ref name="nih2">{{cite web|url=https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/lab-virology|title=Heinz Feldmann, M.D., Ph.D., Laboratory of Virology|publisher=niaid.nih.gov|accessdate=2016-10-28}}</ref><ref name="nih3">{{cite web|url=https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/lab-bacteriology|title=Laboratory of Bacteriology|publisher=niaid.nih.gov|accessdate=2016-10-28}}</ref><ref name="nih4">{{cite web|url=https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/lab-persistent-viral-diseases|title=Bruce W. Chesebro, M.D., Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, NIAID, NIH|publisher=niaid.nih.gov|accessdate=2016-10-28}}</ref> RML operates one of the few [[Biosafety level 4]] laboratories in the United States, as well as [[Biosafety level 3]] and ABSL3/4 laboratories.<ref name="nih5">{{cite web|url=https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/rocky-mountain-laboratories|title=Rocky Mountain Laboratories|publisher=niaid.nih.gov|accessdate=2016-10-28}}</ref>

In February 2020, electron microscope images of [[SARS-CoV-2]] were collected at RML.<ref>{{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=2020-02-15}}</ref>

==History==
Rocky Mountain Laboratories 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 [[Zoonosis|zoonotic]] diseases including [[typhus]], [[tularemia]], and [[Q-fever]].<ref name="Hettrick">{{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 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24414669}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Hettrick" />

In the post-war decades, the laboratory broadened its scope to study [[chlamydia trachomatis]] and [[Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy|transmissible spongiform encephalopathies]] including [[scrapie]], [[Bovine spongiform encephalopathy|mad cow disease]], and [[chronic wasting disease]]. In 1982, Dr. [[Willy Burgdorfer]] discovered ''[[Borrelia burgdorferi]]'', the tick-borne bacterium that causes [[Lyme disease]].<ref name="Hettrick" />

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==References==
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[[Category:National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases]]
[[Category:Hamilton, Montana]]