The IMB’s Mobile Laboratory
The concept for the modular, rapidly deployable field laboratory was developed in 2008 by the IMB’s Mobile B Reconnaissance and Verification department. The researchers defined the basic requirements for the field laboratory as low logistical effort, minimal space and infrastructure requirements, and the ability to process samples with suspected pathogens up to risk group 4 (e.g., Ebola virus).
Equipment
The mobile laboratory includes all the necessary components for fast and precise specialized microbiological diagnostics. The analytical equipment includes conventional and real-time (RT)-PCR, next-generation sequencing, ELISA, light and fluorescence microscopy, and immunochromatography. The laboratory equipment not only meets the performance criteria for diagnostic analysis equipment but is also selected for its robustness, transportability, and reliability under extreme field conditions. The modular equipment sets are packaged according to application, ensuring a high degree of flexibility.
In 2012, the IMB enhanced performance and biological safety by developing a foldable glovebox. The glovebox meets the basic technical requirements of the European standard for class III microbiological safety cabinets (DIN EN 12469) and enables the processing of sample material with suspected highly infectious pathogens up to risk group 4.
The IMB also developed an inflatable tent system with prefabricated interior partitions for remote regions with little infrastructure. This tent system allows for modular expansion and provides a standardized working environment.
Logistics
The basic equipment includes approximately 25 rollable, robust, and weatherproof crates, two active cooling/freezing units, and the glovebox. The maximum weight of the individual transport elements is 32 kg, facilitating transport by the laboratory team and enabling transport by commercial airlines within 48 hours.
As the laboratory’s active refrigerators or freezers cannot be operated during flights, vacuum-insulated boxes are used to bring temperature-sensitive reagents into the field.
Quality Management
For the use of the mobile laboratory, the IMB developed a standardized submission form, evidence-proof documentation of all processing steps and test results, as well as validation of the test results by medical and biological specialists.
Deployment
The IMB’s mobile laboratory provides the Bundeswehr with highly mobile capacities to monitor and investigate unusual disease outbreaks in military deployment areas. The laboratory unit can be adapted to different infrastructures and requires only 20 square meters of space. The IMB first tested its modular equipment and personnel concept for a field laboratory in 2007 during an outbreak of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever in Kosovo.
In addition to military applications, mobile laboratories are also used in the civilian sector. In 2013, the IMB provided three mobile laboratories as part of the EU project European Mobile Lab: Development of rapidly deployable laboratory units for field diagnostics of dangerous pathogens in Africa. The laboratory units are stationed in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Germany and were in continuous use for 18 months in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014/15.
Since 2016, the IMB has been setting up mobile laboratory capacities in partner countries in Africa and Asia on behalf of German and European initiatives. IMB experts are continuously involved in validation processes for the Minimum Standards for Rapid Response Mobile Laboratories (RRML) developed by the WHO.