The Center for Infectious Disease Research (CIDR) is housed at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

. The CIDR houses a BSL3 laboratory. As of 2021, its focus is "on understanding the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis related to infection with all types of

microorganisms A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

viruses A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

or parasites."

History

The CIDR was established in 2002 as the Center for Bioterrorism and Infectious Diseases (CBID). The name was changed to its current status in 2010. Over a three year period in the early 2010s, a total of four notifiable accidents involving dermal punctures. As of 2015, the MCW operated two BSL-3 laboratories both on the main campus in Wauwatosa. In May 2015, it was reported that "MCW's lab is registered with the federal government to work with the

Gram-negative Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. They are characterized by their cell envelopes, which are composed of a thin peptidoglycan cell wall ...

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

known as '' Francisella''."

References

BSL3 laboratories in the United States {{Wisconsin-struct-stub