What is the required biosafety level for handling recombinant adenovirus?
A. Our recombinant adenoviruses that are deleted in the E1 and E3 regions will replicate in HEK293 cells, but not in other cell lines. According to the NIH Office of Biosafety, recombinant human adenovirus has been classified in biosafety level II for agents considered of ordinary potential harm, and you need BL-2 level facility to work with it. It should be noted that cell culture facilities in most institutes are certified as BL-2 level. For more information on biosafety levels, please refer to the following CDC publication: Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories, 4th Edition, May 1999; this publication is also available at http://bmbl.od.nih.gov.
