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By Category: Research

Biosafety lab to identify unknown viruses

(IBNLive.com) Kolkata, Nov 14. Detection of unknown viruses is expected to be easier and quicker with the School of Tropical Medicine (STM) here deciding to set up a biosafety lab for analysing blood samples of patients suffering from …

November 15, 2011
| Filed under South Asia, Biosafety, Public Health, and Research
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Obama Rationale for Smallpox Drug Contract Called Into Question

(GSN Daily News) The Obama administration’s decision to award a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to manufacture a smallpox antiviral of questionable efficacy has been called into question, particularly because a principal shareholder in the contracting firm is a longtime campaign donor, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday (see GSN, June 28). Read More »

November 15, 2011
| Filed under North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Cost, need questioned in $433-million smallpox drug deal

(Los Angeles Times) Reporting from Washington— Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work. Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is Read More »

November 14, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biotechnology, and Research
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IOM Study: Shipboard Hazard and Defense II (SHAD II)

From 1962-1973, more than 5,800 military personnel — mostly Navy personnel and Marines — participated in Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense), a series of tests of U.S. warship vulnerability to biological and chemical warfare agents. Many of these tests used simulants, substances with the physical properties of chemical or biological warfare agents, which at Read More »

November 10, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Bloggingheads: What will power the future?

(Scientific American, Video Blog) Biosafety and risk assessment are huge and complex issues (and have been in the news recently) and we were only able to scratch the surface here so I hope that we can keep this discussion going! About the Author: Christina Agapakis is a biological …