the adventures of an international virology lab that operates as a tiny stealth CDC whose core membership is split between Canadians, Americans and Mexicans, with a side-order of at least one Iranian (I think) and a scientist of Vietnamese descent.

That's awesome. I didn't think epidemiologists got to be heroic.

Sandstrom also at one point digs up a 1918 influenza victim and cultures pandemic-level flu, ostensibly for a good cause--

Given a broad-spectrum definition of heroic . . .

(Out of curiosity, does it work?)