Recent News

By Category: Research

Exposed to Anthrax? In the Future, Your Shirt Could Provide Early Warning

(Nextgov) The Pentagon wants clothing and industrial paint to be built with covert chemical warfare detectors, so that it can better anticipate threats such as anthrax, a defense solicitation reveals. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the unit charged with reducing threats from biological warfare and nuclear weapons, is expressing “significant interest in materials that physically Read More »

May 16, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biological Weapons, Bioterrorism, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
Share

Animal Disease Research Misses the Human Perspective, Say Researchers

(Science Daily) Animal disease research concentrates too much on the behaviour of micro organisms while ignoring the role played by human beings; we need to take more account of the human dimension if the work of scientists is to be translated effectively into policy, according to scientists at Lancaster and Liverpool universities. The interdisciplinary project, Read More »

May 16, 2012
| Filed under Europe, Agriculture, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
Share

Virus ‘barcodes’ offer rapid detection of mutated strains

(University of Leeds) Dr Julian Hiscox and Dr John Barr of the University’s Faculty of Biological Sciences are working with the Health Protection Agency Porton (HPA) to build a bank of molecular signatures that will help identify the severity of virus infection from characteristic changes seen in cells. Currently the team is barcoding different strains Read More »

May 14, 2012
| Filed under Europe, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
Share

Hamilton lab to manufacture Ebola vaccine

(Guelph Mercury) An Ebola vaccine will soon be manufactured in Hamilton as researchers prepare to test it in humans. The vaccine to protect against the severe and often deadly viral hemorrhagic fever was created at Winnipeg’s National Microbiology Laboratory, which has the highest security in Canada.

May 14, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
Share

H5N1 Transmission in Ferrets

(Clinicians’ Biosecurity News) Fears of an impending H5N1 influenza pandemic have existed since the first cases of human infection appeared 15 years ago. A pandemic could occur only if the virus acquired mutations that made it more adept at transmission among humans. Two recent and controversial studies have raised the spectre of increased mammalian droplet Read More »