Laboratories

Klare Allen, a once-homeless mother turned community activist, was stunned at a public meeting in 2002 when she and her friends learned that Boston University Medical Center officials planned to build a biological defense laboratory in one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. "We heard anthrax and Roxbury-South End," she recalled. "Then we heard Ebola. The last thing we heard was bubonic plague. We looked at each other and said, 'No way are they bringing that . . . into our community.'

State regulators performed a shoddy investigation and let UCLA off too lightly for violations stemming from a chemistry lab fire that killed a staff research assistant, the victim's family contends in papers filed with Cal-OSHA and the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board. Sheri Sangji, 23, suffered severe burns over 43% of her body when an experiment with air-sensitive chemicals burst into flame Dec. 29 and ignited her clothing.

The head of California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health said Monday he will personally oversee a "rigorous and effective" criminal investigation into the Dec. 29 chemistry lab fire that killed a UCLA staff research assistant. Cal/OSHA Chief Len Welsh's pledge came after a civil probe last month resulted in one regulatory and three "serious" violations, and fines totaling $31,875. The family of the research assistant, Sheri Sangji, had criticized the review as inadequate.

Stung by criticism over its backlog of rape-kit evidence, the Los Angeles Police Department has begun bypassing its own crime lab in some instances in favor of a state facility known for its quick DNA analysis. The Police Department's Scientific Investigation Division typically takes six to eight months to process rape-kit evidence and enter it into a state forensics database, where it can be matched against DNA taken from convicted felons.

Doctors say UnitedHealth Group Inc. is threatening to fine them over something they can't control: patients' behavior. UnitedHealth said that beginning March 1 it could fine a doctor $50 if a patient has tests done in facilities besides Laboratory Corp. of America or other labs that the company has selected. Doctors with patients who go out of network could also be subject to lower reimbursement and to exclusion from United's network. The American Medical Assn.

The French laboratory that produced incriminating doping results against Tour de France champion Floyd Landis may have allowed improper access to the American cyclist's urine samples, lab documents show -- one of a number of errors that could jeopardize the case against Landis. A similar error, committed by the same lab in 2005, resulted in the rare dismissal of doping charges against Spanish cyclist Inigo Landaluze in December.

Faced with huge backlogs in unprocessed DNA and other types of criminal evidence, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and LAPD Chief William J. Bratton had long been looking forward to Friday's ribbon-cutting for the new joint-agency regional crime lab. Unfortunately, the grand opening was only for show. The building remains empty.

Defense lawyers for Tour de France champion Floyd Landis on Wednesday began building their case that the French laboratory that found he tested positive for testosterone is inept and dishonest, contending that its analytical records are rife with unexplained time gaps that may conceal efforts by lab personnel to manipulate test results. The target of the attorneys' barbs was Cynthia Mongongu, a supervisory analyst at the French government doping laboratory in Paris.

The National Science Foundation chose South Dakota's closed Homestake Gold Mine as the site for a new underground physics lab to study the history and makeup of the universe. South Dakota won the project, called the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, over Colorado, Minnesota and Washington state. The science foundation said the lab, planned in Lead, S.D., would be the largest and deepest facility of its kind in the world if built as envisioned.

Nine months ago, Missouri voters became the first in the nation to pass a constitutional amendment protecting embryonic stem cell research. Ever since, opponents have been working feverishly to overturn it. They have not yet succeeded in criminalizing the research -- though they hope to accomplish that in the next election. But they have created so much uncertainty and mistrust that scientists who just last fall viewed Missouri as a beacon won't even consider moving here now.