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By Category: Research

Forum: H5N1 research tussle shows need for clear policies

(CIDRAP News) The acute need for clearer policies concerning the handling of potentially risky life-sciences research was the main theme that came across today in a Harvard forum on the controversy over studies on H5N1 avian influenza …

February 16, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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How secure are labs handling world’s deadliest pathogens?

(Reuters) Last year, labs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Erasmus MC in Rotterdam independently created mutant forms of avian influenza, known as H5N1, that can be transmitted directly among mammals. The natural strain can be caught only through …

February 15, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biosafety, International, Public Health, and Research
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H5N1 Bird Flu May Be Less Deadly to Humans Than Previously Thought — Or Not

(Huffington Post) A simple math problem lies at the heart of a heated debate over whether scientists should be allowed to publish provocative research into the transmissibility of H5N1 flu. Assuming the avian virus could spread easily among people, …<

February 15, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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Planned Kansas Biodefense Laboratory Over the Rainbow?

(Science Now) Four years ago, scientists and lawmakers in Kansas rejoiced when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it had chosen Manhattan, Kansas, as the site for a new $650 million federal lab to replace the aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center, the country’s premier veterinary research facility off the coast of Read More »

February 15, 2012
| Filed under North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Immunovaccine’s delivery platform to be tested in fight against bioterrorism

(TheChronicleHerald.ca) The company said preliminary research with an anthrax antigen demonstrates the DepoVax-based vaccine was able to raise antibody levels exceeding those of traditional delivery platforms. “Persisting high antibody levels were induced within four weeks …