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By Category: Research

Tracking diseases from anthrax to cholera

(Science News) And some wondered whether the new cases could be linked to 1950s-era government biological weapons testing on the Scottish island of Gruinard. Comparing the strain found in the heroin users to the Arizona anthrax library revealed that it was very …

October 17, 2011
| Filed under Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, Biological Weapons, International, Public Health, and Research
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Lasers Could Quickly ID Bacterial Threats: Researcher

(GSN Daily News) A Canadian researcher said he has developed a system for using laser technology to quickly identify dangerous bacteria such as anthrax, Postmedia News reported on Thursday (see GSN, Feb. 14). “It’s just a completely different way of looking at how to identify bacteria,” said Steven Rehse, an assistant physics professor at the Read More »

October 17, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biotechnology, and Research
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NIH Awards $3.5M for Anthrax Vaccine Project

(GSN Daily News) The U.S. National Institutes of Health has awarded $3.5 million for work on a new anthrax vaccine by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Loyola University in Maryland, the San Francisco Business Times reported on Monday (see GSN, Oct. 4). “Nanolipoprotein” technology used in the development process could Read More »

October 13, 2011
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, and Research
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Black Death plague pit produces first ancient bacterial genome

(Nature News Blog) Bones uncovered in a medieval burial pit used to inter victims of the Black Death have yielded the first genome sequence of an ancient bacterial pathogen, the bubonic plague-causing bacterium Yersinia pestis. The draft genome sequence, published online today in Nature, follows the publication of a short loop of Y. pestis DNA Read More »

October 13, 2011
| Filed under Europe, Agents & Toxins, and Research
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US unprepared for bioterrorism

Bioterrorism is a significant threat to US citizens — and one which the nation is sorely unprepared to face, according to an assessment released today by the Bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center, a non-profit bipartisan research organisation based in Washington, DC. The Center’s ‘report card’ grades the US on eight response categories, ranging from detection Read More »