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By Category: Agents & Toxins

CDC Defends Smallpox Retention

.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is defending its retention of smallpox stocks. The United States and Russia are the only countries known to possess live strains of the highly virulent variola virus that was declared eradicated from nature in 1980. The two superpowers have justified their continued retention of the potential bioterrorism  Read More »

‘Bacillus anthracis and Anthrax’

(Wiley-Blackwell) Few strands of bacteria have achieved such a central place in public consciousness as Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria which causes Anthrax. While today it is a feared weapon of bioterrorism Bacillus anthracis has played a significant historical role, especially through the research of the celebrated 19th century scientists Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur, in  Read More »

Supercomputer Used To Solve Anthrax’s Ribosomal Mystery

Theoretical biologists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have used a supercomputer to help a team of international scientists solve another ribosomal mystery that may aid in combating engineered strains of anthrax and the plague.

University of Washington Students Create Anthrax Destroying Protein

Students from the University of Washington took home a first-place prize from an international genetic engineering competition for developing an anthrax destroying protein and engineering a type of E. coli that targets harmful bacteria. The team of undergraduates, led by doctorate students and faculty advisers, chose to engineer microbes with the intent of developing a  Read More »