Biosafety Levels (BSLs) are a set of containment precautions and safety practices used in laboratories to protect personnel, the environment, and the public from exposure to infectious agents or biohazards. 

These levels are defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U.S., and they range from BSL-1 (lowest risk) to BSL-4 (highest risk). Each level builds on the previous, with increasing levels of:

  1. Containment
  2. Access control
  3. Personal protective equipment (PPE)
  4. Facility design
  5. Training and supervision

At the present there is Biosafety Level 1 and Level 2 research on campus.