Virtual Biosecurity Center

The eighth wonder: developments in synthetic biology

(ScienceOmega) The UK life science industry has become a significant focus area for research and development in recent years, which is hardly surprising given that the industry generates a turnover of just over £50bn. Recognising the significance of the sector, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) published the ‘Strategy for UK Life Sciences’ in December 2011, setting out a series of directives aimed at advancing life sciences. A progress report released a year later showed that in 12 months £1bn in revenue had been generated through industry and private sector investment,2 further highlighting the importance of life sciences to the Read More »
- June 14, 2013 |
- Filed Under Biotechnology, Research
University of Toronto breakthrough allows fast, reliable pathogen identification

(EurekAlert) Life-threatening bacterial infections cause tens of thousands of deaths every year in North America. Increasingly, many infections are resistant to first-line antibiotics. Unfortunately, current methods of culturing bacteria in the lab can take days to report the specific source of the infection, and even longer to pinpoint the right antibiotic that will clear the infection. There remains an urgent, unmet need for technologies that can allow bacterial infections to be rapidly and specifically diagnosed.
- June 13, 2013 |
- Filed Under Agents & Toxins, Countermeasures, Public Health, Research
Ebola’s secret weapon revealed

(VirtualMedicalCentre) Researchers have discovered the mechanism behind one of the Ebola virus’ most dangerous attributes: its ability to disarm the adaptive immune system. University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston scientists determined that Ebola short-circuits the immune system using proteins that work together to shut down cellular signaling related to interferon. Disruption of this activity, the researchers found, allows Ebola to prevent the full development of dendritic cells that would otherwise trigger an immune response to the virus.
- May 30, 2013 |
- Filed Under Agents & Toxins, International, Public Health, Research
Op-Ed – Improving Intelligence on Emerging Bioweapons Threats: New Engagements Needed Between Intelligence and Academia

Kathleen M. Vogel, Associate Professor, Department of Science and Technology Studies and the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, Cornell University Since the end of the Cold War and the rise of asymmetric security threats, the U.S intelligence and policy communities have been increasingly concerned about new types of bioweapons attacks that might arise from a spectrum of state and non-state actors. In a 1995 U.S. Senate hearing, CIA official Gordon Oehler lamented that, “the increasingly troubled post–Cold War world has, in a curious way, made us yearn for the dark days of the 1960s and 1970s when we knew Read More »
- January 16, 2013 |
- Filed Under Biological Weapons, Bioterrorism, International, Policy & Initiatives
Op-Ed – With the Changing Biological threat…smart international engagement policy would lower cost and increase national security.

David R. Franz, DVM, Ph.D. Former Commander US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases “There is no technical solution…”: In 1998, after we understood the enormity of the Soviet offensive program and the potential of the Iraqi one to disrupt, Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg said, “There is no technical solution to this problem of biological warfare. It needs an ethical, human and moral solution, if it’s going to happen at all….” Then he paused and said, “But would an ethical or moral solution appeal to a sociopath?” The early days of the biological Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program were similar Read More »
- November 13, 2012 |
- Filed Under Biological Weapons, Countermeasures, International, Policy & Initiatives

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Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – update

(WHO) 15 June 2013 – The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia has announced an additional three laboratory-confirmed cases, including one death with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The first patient is a 45-year-old man with underlying medical conditions from Taif governorate. He became ill since the end of May Read More »

June 17, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Europe, Middle East, and International
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BioWatch faces congressional hearing this week

(LATimes) WASHINGTON — A decade ago, then-Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge oversaw the start of BioWatch, the nationwide system designed to detect airborne releases of anthrax or other biological weapons. In his 2003 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush had announced that BioWatch would “protect our people and Read More »

June 17, 2013
| Filed under North America and Policy & Initiatives
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NBAF funding survives House vote

(AgProfessional) The U.S. House of Representatives last week passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, including $404 million for the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kan. Prior to the vote, members opposed to the NBAF plan tried to remove those funds from the bill. According Read More »

June 17, 2013
| Filed under North America, Agriculture, and Research
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Boosting Biosecurity Crucial to Protecting Your Farm from PED Virus

(Farms) Pig producers are encouraged to ramp up their on-farm biosecurity measures to help prevent the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus entering Canada. The first PED virus case was discovered in the United States in May, which has spread to over 100 herd spanning 11 states. Officials confirm that the virus Read More »

June 17, 2013
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, and Agriculture
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Update to Interim Guidance for Preexposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for the Prevention of HIV Infection: PrEP for Injecting Drug Users

(CDC) On June 12, 2013, the Thailand Ministry of Health and CDC published results from a randomized controlled trial of a daily oral dose of 300 mg of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) that showed efficacy in reducing the acquisition of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among injecting drug users (IDUs) (1). Read More »