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This article was published 4/5/2019 (508 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Kaylie Tran demonstrates the work she and other research technicians do at the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Halth.

Jerry Caluag had just finished a 12-hour graveyard shift and was hoping his son wasn't up yet when he got home.

No such luck. Six-year-old Kaleb was bouncing off the walls raring to go to the open house of the national virology lab.

"I want to be a scientist," explained Kaleb, in his element among the microscopes, glove boxes and simulated disease cultures at the open house Saturday morning.

"He's always watching the Discovery Channel," said mom, Melody.

The open house marked the 20th anniversary of the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health in Winnipeg — the National Microbiology Laboratory is the better known human disease component.

It was a massive hit. The last open house five years ago attracted 1,700 people. This one had 500 people in the first hour.

Almost 3,200 passed through the doors Saturday. The Caluag family had to wait in line 20 minutes to get in, although the line dissipated later in the day.

It's a large undertaking by the laboratory. About 120 staff volunteered to oversee the event that ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A committee of about 20 staff spent many months making preparations.

About 560 employees work in the lab.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Ethan Olson, 8, peers into a petri dish during an open house Saturday marking the 20th anniversary of the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health.

Inside, people got to see what bio-security looks like, including the equipment and uniforms of the people inside. In the kid zone, the little ones looked adorable in goggles and miniature lab coats.

"We've always known the lab holds a special place here in Winnipeg," said Dr. Guillaume Poliquin, senior medical advisor at the National Microbiology Laboratory.

"It has a bit of a mystique and to be able to open our doors and… to see this many people here this early in the morning is great."

A Health Canada exhibit with information sign boards was on display to further people's understanding.

Poliquin said one of the highlights for the lab's first 20 years includes developing the Ebola vaccine that is estimated to have saved hundreds of thousands of lives in Africa. In newer work, teams of staff are going to Nunavut to combat tuberculosis.

Another highlight was its response to the cholera outbreak in Haiti in 2010. New technology allows the lab to find the entire genetic blueprint of a bacteria within hours, versus months previously. The lab was able to figure out how cholera started, where it was heading and how to control it.

Poliquin said that new technology will rapidly transform the lab's work in the years ahead.

The centre has four levels of microbiologic security, with Level 4 the highest security level. Level 4 is the House of Horrors of pathogens, storing diseases dating back a century ago to the Spanish flu virus and more recent terrors like Ebola and H1N1. Others include Lassa fever, Marburg virus disease and Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic fever.

"Certainly some of the world's most dangerous pathogens are here," said Dr. Matthew Gilmour, scientific director of the National Microbiology Lab.

"We try to understand how these organisms are causing disease. It gives us a lot of information on how things like influenza evolve."

A demonstrator glovebox from Level 4 was on hand for kids to pluck the pathogens off a Minion cartoon character. Staff were also on hand to demonstrate donning and removing the big and bulky Level 4 suits. It takes about five minutes to put on the yellow neoprene suit with a full body zipper and double gloves.

There are lots of showers afterwards, it was explained, including a chemical shower of the suit on the person. Then the clothes worn beneath the suit are heat sterilized and finally, the person takes a regular shower that is required to be at least three minutes in duration.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca