NML is located in several sites across the country including the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health (CSCHAH) in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Around the same time, Agriculture Canada (prior to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency being formed) also identified the need for new laboratory space including high-containment.
Numerous benefits were identified for housing both laboratories in one building and Winnipeg was chosen as the site; an announcement to that effect was made in October 1987.
Construction of the facility that came to be named the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health (often referred to locally as "the Virology Lab") began with an official ground-breaking in December 1992.
[3] The NML (PHAC) fired Chinese nationals Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng from their jobs as BSL4 infectious disease researchers in January 2021;[7] previously in July 2019 the pair had been dismissed from their positions as unpaid members of the University of Winnipeg for their agency in a mysterious trans-Pacific shipment of BSL4-grade virus materials back to their homeland when the RCMP was called in.
In human health infectious disease laboratories, the design and construction of the facility, the engineering controls, and the training and techniques of staff are all focused on protecting lab workers, containing the pathogens, and preventing contamination of materials to ensure accurate diagnosis and research.
Risk Group 3 pathogens may be transmitted by the airborne route, often need only a low infectious dose to produce effects, and can cause serious or life-threatening disease.
CL3 emphasizes additional primary and secondary barriers to minimize the release of infectious organisms into the immediate laboratory and the environment.
These agents have the potential for aerosol transmission, often have a low infectious dose and produce very serious and often fatal disease; there is no licensed treatment or vaccine available.
There is also the Public Health Risk Sciences Division, which is a specialized resource that provides scientific knowledge and solutions to better assess public health risks and enable decisions, with specific attention to infectious disease threats transmitted from food, the animals, or the physical environment.
NML also funds the National Reference Centre for Parasitology in Montreal and has a Laboratory Liaison Technical Officer in most provincial labs.
[11] NML is renowned[12][better source needed] for its work on a broad spectrum of infectious diseases from seasonal influenza to Ebola and its accomplishments are too many to detail.
Also during this outbreak, a promising vaccine and treatment for Ebola that were developed at NML, in conjunction with collaborators, were fast tracked into clinical trials so that they could get to the people that needed it as soon as possible.
In April 2009, the Mexican national lab approached NML for assistance with identifying a respiratory virus that was causing outbreaks in Mexico.
The GHSAG-LN network's goals are to coordinate the diagnostic capabilities of all participants and contribute to disease surveillance around the world.
Under Dr. Plummer's guidance, the NML developed into one of the world's premier institutions in the research, detection, and response to global infectious disease and bio-security threats.
Dr. Plummer was the first to reveal that heterosexual women could also be infected with HIV/AIDS and that a cohort of Nairobi sex workers had a natural immunity to HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Plummer stepped down as the NML's Scientific Director General to take the position as senior adviser to the Agency's Chief Public Health Officer in 2014.