A blue-ribbon panel last week told the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that it needs to conduct more studies if it hopes to see high-risk biosafety research conducted at a lab under construction at Boston University Medical Center in Massachusetts.

The panel, chaired by molecular biologist Adel Mahmoud of Princeton University in New Jersey, said that the agency should conduct risk assessments for 12 dangerous pathogens, including comparing the risks of each being released at urban, suburban and rural sites.

Advisers to NIH director Elias Zerhouni, who received the report on 6 June, offered some sharp criticism of the $198-million project, most of which is being paid for by the NIH. Community concerns about the risks of the facility have led to it being challenged in both the state and federal courts.