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By Category: Agents & Toxins

U.S. Legal Moves Seen Undercutting Anthrax Defense

The U.S. Justice Department’s submission and rapid correction of statements that appeared to counter the findings of the federal anthrax mailings probe could further expose the government to charges it was negligent in securing anthrax stocks purportedly tapped for the 2001 attacks, three news organizations said on Wednesday in a collaborative report published by ProPublica Read More »

July 21, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Bioterrorism, and Policy & Initiatives
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US Revises Its Response to Lawsuit on Anthrax

New York Times – Embarrassed Justice Department officials rushed on Tuesday to correct their own filing in a lawsuit over the 2001 anthrax letters after learning that it appeared to contradict the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s conclusion that Bruce E. Ivins, an Army scientist, prepared the deadly powder in his Army laboratory. Lawyers for the Read More »

July 20, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, and Bioterrorism
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Army Touts New System for Identifying Biological Materials

The U.S. Army on Monday said its Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Maryland has produced a system for rapid determination of potentially dangerous disease materials (see GSN, Nov. 24, 2010). “Remember today, July 14, 2011. You are experiencing the beginning of a revolution,” according to provided remarks from David Chiang, chief executive officer for Sage-N Read More »

July 20, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Countermeasures, and Research
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Anthrax Mailing Suspect’s Lab Lacked Spore-Drying Gear

The airtight “hot suite” in the laboratory of the final suspect in the 2001 anthrax mailings lacked systems capable of freeze-drying fluid anthrax samples into dry spores of the type used in the attacks, the U.S. Justice Department said in court documents filed on Friday (see GSN, May 20). Hazardous materials experts decontaminate one another Read More »

July 19, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Bioterrorism, and Research
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Hendra Virus Facts

(Medical News Today) University of Queensland researchers have produced batches of a monoclonal antibody, which may offer hope as a potential therapeutic for Hendra virus infection in humans. The batches have been developed in UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN).