Recent News

By Category: Policy & Initiatives

Bird Flu: Any Information to Declare?

(Discover Magazine) The focus on information reflects how far synthetic biology, bioinformatics, and the Internet have all come in recent years. And there’s now a new twist on this information debate, reported in a Dutch newspaper and followed up on by CIDRAP.

March 14, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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111 Organizations Call for Synthetic Biology Moratorium

(Science AAAS) Synthetic biology needs more oversight, and the government needs to put in place regulations specific for this field. That is the bottom line for 111 environmental, watchdog, and other organizations that released a report today with specific recommendations for managing new biological techniques for building and remaking organisms for research and commercial uses Read More »

March 14, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Biotechnology, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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USDA Finally Ready to Adopt International BSE Standards

(Food Safety News) More than eight years ago, an adult Holstein cow on a cattle ranch near the edge of Washington state’s Yakima Valley became the first-ever diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) on U.S. soil. BSE, or Mad Cow Disease, was an international issue long before that diseased Holstein turned up. Yet, U.S. import Read More »

March 13, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agriculture, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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South Korea Not Prepared For Smallpox Attack by North: Report

(Global Security Newswire) South Korea is still not able to handle the effects of a smallpox attack by North Korea, which is judged to have the ability to manufacture the lethal virus, the Korea Herald reported on Monday. Pyongyang’s biological weapon abilities include the capacity to reconstitute from available digital genetic sequences the highly virulent Read More »

March 13, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Biological Weapons, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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The bioterrorism threat and laboratory security

(Homeland Security Newswire) Leonard A. Cole, an expert on bioterrorism and on terror medicine who teaches at Rutgers University, investigates the security of U.S. high containment labs in light of the dramatic growth in the number of these labs, which handle dangerous pathogens, following 9/11 and the anthrax attacks.