Locked Down: How Kenton Brothers Protects the World’s Most Sensitive Bio Labs

By David Strickland, COO of Kenton Brothers

When your facility houses some of the most dangerous pathogens on Earth, “good security” isn’t enough. It has to be flawless. At Kenton Brothers Systems for Security, we design and integrate multi-layered defense systems for biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) and level 4 (BSL-4) laboratories—environments so secure they’ve been called “prisons for pathogens.”

These are not metaphors. In these labs, every door, every badge reader, every airlock, and every human step is part of a tightly choreographed plan to protect people, property, and the public.

Multi-Layered Defense: The Fortress Within

High-containment labs demand more than barriers—they demand logic. Our security architecture mirrors the same redundant, fail-safe philosophy found in federal and state biosafety regulations (CDC/NIH BMBL, Select Agent Program, and NIH DRM standards).

We engineer defense in depth, including:

• Perimeter control: Hardened access points, high-security locks, and biometric or multi-factor authentication.
• Zoned containment: Security levels increase as personnel move closer to pathogen areas, with interlocked doors and pressure-controlled airlocks.
• Integrated logic: Our systems communicate with building automation to prevent unsafe entry during air or power anomalies.
• Redundancy everywhere: Backup power, dual networks, and redundant sensors ensure that nothing fails when it matters most.

This approach creates a living fortress—always secure, never stagnant.

Trained and Trusted Personnel

Technology is only as reliable as the people behind it. Every Kenton Brothers technician and project manager who enters a high-containment environment is vetted, trained, and briefed on biosafety principles.  We align our practices with Select Agent Regulations (42 CFR Part 73) and OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens Standard, ensuring our teams understand both the engineering and human safety sides of containment work.

Our specialists are drilled in:

• Door interlock logic and pressure sequence validation
• Emergency power and lockdown procedures
• Secure credentialing and audit requirements
• Integrated testing with mechanical and life-safety systems

In these labs, there is no margin for human error—and we treat it that way.

One Command Center, One Pane of Glass

Managing hundreds of sensors, controllers, and HVAC interfaces across a containment facility can overwhelm traditional systems. That’s why we design and install unified command environments with single plane of glass dashboards that visualize:

• Door states and interlocks
• Pressure differentials and HVAC status
• Camera feeds and alarm conditions
• Access events and audit trails

This “one-pane-of-glass” view allows facility teams to see, control, and verify their entire environment instantly. When seconds matter, clarity saves lives.

Seamless Upgrades, Zero Downtime

High-containment labs can’t afford outages. Our proprietary transition process allows us to modernize and take over legacy systems while they remain operational. Using shadow controllers, parallel databases, and staged commissioning, we keep containment intact while bringing systems up to today’s standards.

The result? Continuous security, continuous science.

Built to Meet and Exceed Federal Standards

Every design we deliver aligns with or exceeds:

• CDC/NIH Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL, 6th Edition)
• NIH Design Requirements Manual (DRM)
• Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP)
• ASHRAE laboratory ventilation guidance
• UL 294 for access control equipment performance

These aren’t boxes we check—they’re the foundation of our design philosophy.

Protecting People, Science, and the Public

At Kenton Brothers, we believe that security and science share the same mission: protect life.
Our systems safeguard the researchers who push the boundaries of medicine and the communities who depend on their breakthroughs.

In a environment where the stakes couldn’t be higher, we bring together trained people, proven processes, and hardened technology to ensure that what’s inside those walls stays inside and that those who work there come home safely every day.

Because when it comes to pathogen containment, there’s no second chance.