Recent News

By Category: Research

Scores of labs may have received live anthrax samples from Army facility

(LA Times) An Army bio-defense facility in Utah may have mistakenly sent live anthrax samples to 51 commercial companies, academic institutions and federal labs without proper safeguards, more than double the total disclosed last week, a widening Pentagon investigation has found.

June 3, 2015
| Filed under International, North America, Biosafety, and Research
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Filgrastim Approved for Treatment of Acute Radiation Injury

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of filgrastim (trade name Neupogen) to increase survival of people acutely exposed to high doses of radiation that damage the bone marrow, for example, as a result of a nuclear power plant accident or terrorist attack.

May 4, 2015
| Filed under Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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NIST Develops ‘Fingerprinting’ Method for Antibody Therapies

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers at the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) have demonstrated the most precise method yet to measure the structural configuration of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), an important factor in determining the safety and efficacy of these biomolecules as medicines. – See more at: http://globalbiodefense.com/2015/04/28/nist-develops-fingerprinting-method-for-antibody-therapies/#sthash.qDjJn01R.dpuf

May 4, 2015
| Filed under Biotechnology, Countermeasures, and Research
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Effect of Experimental Ebola Vaccine after High-Risk Exposure

A study appearing this week in JAMA analyzes the case of a 44-year-old U.S. physician who received an experimental Ebola vaccine after experiencing a needle stick while working in an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone.

March 12, 2015
| Filed under Biotechnology, Countermeasures, and Research
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UC Davis Working to Help Speed Ebola Drug Production

Researchers at the University of California, Davis will explore ways to speed production of the Ebola drug with a $200,000 rapid-response grant from the National Science Foundation. Developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. of San Diego, in collaboration with the U.S. government and partners in Canada, Zmapp is a cocktail of antibodies produced in and extracted Read More »