Laboratory of Virology and Rickettsiology

Virology studies the virus itself. Rickettsiology is the study of Rickettsial diseases, which include typhus, spotted fever, trench fever, and Q fever, and are all very serious infectious diseases. Rickettsial organisms are also of interest to researchers because they have been used as bioweapons and can serve as agents for bioterrorism.

The Laboratory of Virology and Rickettsiology in the Division of Biologics Standards (DBS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was located in Building 29, second and third floors. After Building 29A opened in 1967, the Laboratory of Virology and Rickettsiology and its staff moved to Rooms 2D24 and 3D22.

After the administrative transfer of the DBS from the NIH to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1972, the Laboratory became a Division and maintained that name until 1986. They also remained in Building 29A, on the second and third floors.

In 1986, the Division of Virology and Rickettsiology was no longer listed separately in telephone directories, but the Division of Virology still existed. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, there were more organizational shifts and Molecular Virology was listed under the Division of Transfusion Transmitted Diseases and Viral Products was its own division.

By 2010, there was lab of Immunology & Virology under Division of Cellular & Gene Therapies, and the Division of Viral Products was still its own division too.