Inside the super-secure Swiss lab trying to stop the next pandemic

SPIEZ, Switzerland – The setting is straight from a spy thriller: Crystal waters below, snow-capped Swiss Alps above and in between, a super-secure facility researching the world’s deadliest pathogens.

Spiez Laboratory, known for its detective work on chemical, biological and nuclear threats since World War II, was tasked last year by the World Health Organization to be the first in a global network of high-security laboratories that will grow, store and share newly discovered microbes that could unleash the next pandemic.