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By Category: Research

Biosecurity Board Head Questions Call to Release Full Flu Research Papers

(Global Security Newswire) The head of the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity has voiced reservations about an international expert group’s recommendation to publish the full findings of studies that increased the transmissibility of the avian flu virus, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported on Tuesday. The U.S. board in December Read More »

February 24, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Flu papers warrant full publication

(Nature.com) That is the rationale provided by Paul Keim, acting chair of the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), in response to questions posed by Nature (PS Keim Nature 482, 156–157; 2012) about the NSABB’s recommendation that recent work …

February 24, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Disarming the botulinum neurotoxin

(Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute) Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute discovered how botulinum neurotoxin, a potential bioterrorism agent, survives the hostile environment in the stomach on its journey through the human body. Their study, published Feb. 24 in Science, reveals the first 3D structure of a neurotoxin together with its bodyguard, a protein made simultaneously Read More »

February 24, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, and Research
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Publish lethal flu virus work, says WHO

(New Scientist) BATTLES continue over whether or not to publish research in which H5N1 bird flu transmitted readily among mammals. Last week, a group of flu virologists, public health experts from countries where H5N1 circulates, bioethicists and the World Health Organization advised that the work should be published – even though the top US biosecurity Read More »

February 23, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Agents & Toxins, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Bioterror is not the biggest threat from bird flu

(New Scientist) How should we react? Not by delaying the publication of the research, for fear that it will aid supposed bioterrorists. There is surprisingly little evidence that such a threat exists. But there has long been a great deal of evidence that the threat of pandemic flu exists.