Isolation Lab

Isolation Labs are specialized medical bays that allow doctors and scientists to A) study and experiment with both known and potentially dangerous biohazards in a sealed, sterile environment and B) provide a location to conduct medical experiments/studies without outside contamination. Iso-labs, as they are often called, are set up much like Hazardous Materials Labs with redundant safety procedures and dedicated environmental systems. Typically they are located near a ship or station's Isolation Ward, on the same deck as Sickbay. Whereas HazMat labs deal with dangers from the physical sciences, Iso-labs are concerned with medical hazards such as diseases, toxins, pathogens, and the like.

Isolation labs are hermetically sealed, both mechanically and with containment fields. Only medical personnel trained in isolation procedures are allowed to enter these labs. Entry and egress are through dedicated airlocks with decontamination/sterilization protocols. Depending on what the lab holds, crewmen will have to conform to one of three levels of protection to work inside; the highest requiring the donning of a self-contained suit called a Low-Pressure Environmental Garment (LPEG). Tests can also be carried out through one or more highly articulated bio-mechanical robots that are operated from the safety of a seperate observation booth. Work inside isolation labs can also be readily carried out by a ship's (or station's) Emergency Medical Hologram and through holographic representations of a specialist using haptic controls.

To mantain sterility, these labs are "scrubbed" with the use of various forms (and levels) of radiation (such as thermionic or omicron) which will irradicate all known forms of life, even at the sub-particle level. In an emergency, the dedicated suppression system can pump anything from distilled water to plasma coolant from the Warp core to neutralize a threat.