US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases

The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID, pronounced U-sam-rid) is the U.S Army’s main institution and facility for defensive research into countermeasures against biological warfare. It is located on Fort Detrick, Maryland and is a subordinate lab of the U. S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), headquartered on the same installation. USAMRIID is the only U.S. Department of Defense laboratory equipped to study highly hazardous viruses at Biosafety Level 4 within positive pressure personnel suits. USAMRIID employs both military and civilian scientists as well as highly specialized support personnel. In the 1950s and 1960s, it pioneered unique, state-of-the-art biocontainment facilities which it continues to maintain and upgrade. Investigators at its facilities frequently collaborate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and major biomedical and academic centers worldwide. USAMRIID was the first bio-facility of its type to research the Ames strain of anthrax, determined through genetic analysis to be the bacterium used in the 2001 anthrax attacks.