Dengue fever, influenza and tuberculosis are among the first research targets at the University of Pittsburgh's new Center for Vaccine Research, officially opening today in Oakland.

The center includes a Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, one of 13 such facilities to receive funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and just the second in the nation to open. The NIAID grant in 2003 was for $17.5 million.

Donald Burke, director of the new center and dean of Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health, said the biocontainment lab gives the center the capability to work on the development of vaccines for infectious agents that could be exploited for bioterrorism. But its primary focus will be on vaccine research for some of the world's most widespread and deadly diseases.

"We're going to address important infectious diseases that are causing serious problems around the world and for which there are not existing, effective vaccines," said Dr. Burke, who lived in Thailand for six years, where dengue is a common and serious health threat.

"We will focus on those things where there is a need," he said.

"Some because of a scientific problem, some because the diseases have been neglected because they are not in rich countries."

Influenza is not a neglected disease but one with origins that are not well known and for which a vaccine is ever changing as the virus that causes it changes and adapts, Dr. Burke said.

Likewise, the vaccine for tuberculosis is less effective than it should be, he said, and while there are a number of vaccines in development for dengue fever, none has been proven effective.

Infectious diseases remain a major cause of death and disability for millions of people around the world, and development of new vaccines for those diseases is an important area of medical research focused on risks to global public health and security.

The Center for Vaccine Research is on the eighth and ninth floors of the School of Medicine's 10-story Biomedical Science Tower 3, at Fifth Avenue and Darragh Street in Oakland. When fully staffed, about 150 people will work in its 43,000 square feet of laboratory and office space.

Dr. Burke said the center will also collaborate with other researchers throughout the university.

Clare Collins, a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center spokeswoman, said the center, where a ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m. today, is important because it establishes the region as a national leader in vaccine research.

Dr. Burke, who holds the UPMC-Jonas Salk Chair in Global Health, said it's appropriate that the new vaccine center is located in Pittsburgh, where the first polio vaccine was developed.

"Pittsburgh has a proud history of vaccines that have improved health around the world," Dr. Burke said. "We want to build on those origins."

Two-and-a-half years ago, Pitt officials floated the idea of the school starting its own vaccine production plant in Homestead to supply the vaccines its researchers developed, but Dr. Burke said that while such a facility continues to be discussed, it is not part of the school's short-term plans.