"We proactively offered the figure of $1 million," Texas A&M President Elsa Murano said. "We're setting a standard here, not only a standard for lab safety and performance of safety measures but also a standard that others will realize that this is the type of financial agreement that they should expect to make when standards are not maintained."
The school will now wait for an expected March visit from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which will consider lifting a suspension of A&M's program imposed last year after an investigation found poor safety practices, shoddy record-keeping and a lack of proper training at campus labs.
The agency investigated A&M after one worker became infected with Brucella in 2006 and three others were exposed to Q fever. Both diseases, highly contagious in animals, are rarely fatal in humans but can cause high fever and flulike symptoms.
The financial settlement must be approved by the Texas A&M Board of Regents, which meets Tuesday. Murano said the money would come from research compliance funds.
CDC inspections found many problems, including missing vials of Brucella, unauthorized workers with access to infectious diseases and improper storage of dangerous agents and infected animals.
Investigators also reported sanitation problems -- everything from an apparent insect infestation to lab workers failing to wash their hands or remove lab coats immediately after experiments.
"These were serious violations that should call for this sort of settlement," White said.
School officials are confident they have addressed the CDC's concerns, and scientists are anxious to get their research started again, Murano said. The school doesn't know how long it will have to wait for a decision from the CDC, spokesman Jason Cook said.
Texas A&M heads the National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense, which is funded by an $18 million U.S. Department of Homeland Security biodefense research grant.
Word of problems at A&M spread early last year when an Austin-based bioweapon watchdog group called The Sunshine Project was researching universities seeking the new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility. Texas A&M was among the applicants for the homeland security project but has been eliminated from contention.
"Our vaccine and therapeutic research, although relatively small in terms of actual dollars, is, nonetheless, a significant and critical part of our efforts to protect the citizens of our community, state and nation from those who may choose to do us harm," Murano said. "We're just eagerly awaiting the return of the CDC in March."
