Boston University’s high-security laboratory can begin studying Ebola, Zika, and other deadly pathogens, after the city’s public health commission gave final approval last week for the work to proceed. The move ended a decade and a half of controversy during which South End and Roxbury residents and others raised concerns about an accident or a terrorist attack.

For years, the 192,000-square-foot high-security biolab near Boston Medical Center was tied up by legal challenges and regulatory reviews. Built with $200 million in federal money, the building has been mostly empty since its completion in 2008.

Here is a look back at some key events during the lab’s history:

September 2003: The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Boston University $128 million to construct one of two National Biocontainment Laboratories. The biosafety Level-4 research was expected to focus on emerging infectious diseases that either occur naturally or could be introduced through bioterrorism.

February 2006: The federal government announced its decision to fund the laboratory’s construction, which began in March of that same year.

Fall 2008: Construction was complete, but it would take nine more years before the lab would be allowed to study what it had been specifically built for.

December 2011: The BU laboratory was granted preliminary approval by the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to proceed with biosafety Level 2 research, studying germs less hazardous than the ones that initially sparked opposition to the project.

January 2013: The National Institutes of Health decided that BU’s laboratory “poses minimal risk to the community surrounding the facility.’’ The NIH decision said that independent analyses found that the risks of infections or fatalities to the public from an accident or planned attack are “generally very low to only remotely possible.’’ This decision cleared the way for a final state environmental review, which had been in limbo until that point.

March 2013: The state secretary of environmental affairs found that BU’s environmental impact report was complete enough to comply with state law. Many of the labs opponents had argued that not enough had been done to examine the lab’s potential impact of its surrounding neighborhood.

May 2014: The university persuaded the Boston City Council to reject a proposed ordinance banning Level 4 labs.

December 2016:The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the laboratory to operate on BU’s medical campus in the South End.

Future: Level 4 research could begin in a month or two at the facility. It will take place in a separate earthquake-proof structure within the building that is encased in 12-inch-thick walls.

Sophia Eppolito can be reached at sophia.eppolito@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @SophiaEppolito.