Our Expertise
The Global Center for Health Security is a culmination of 20 years of persistence, planning, and training at UNMC to build emergency preparedness capacity.
The Nebraska Public Health Laboratory was established at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 1997 through a cooperative agreement between the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and Nebraska Medicine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided grant funding for testing of bio-threat and chemical agents.
Two decades of emergency preparedness
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, UNMC was among several entities nationwide to receive federal funding for bioterrorism preparedness. In 2004, UNMC, in conjunction with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, and Nebraska Medicine, began planning the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. It opened in 2005, as the largest such unit in the nation, set up to handle highly contagious and deadly infectious conditions, including: SARS, smallpox, plague, Ebola virus disease and other viral hemorrhagic fevers.
Historical Timeline | Notable Events
Click the timelines below for links.
2025-2020
2019-2015
2015-2004
