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Scientists closer to a safer anthrax vaccine
The currently available, 40-year-old anthrax vaccine, can prevent disease, but it has significant drawbacks: Immunity is temporary, and five injections over the course of eighteen months are needed to sustain it; one in five vaccine recipients develop redness, swelling, or pain at the injection site, and a small number develop severe allergic reactions; researchers offer a better vaccine
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Obama administration emphasizes prevention in bioterrorism strategy
Experts say that the Obama administration’s approach to combating bioterrorism differs from that of the Bush administration; Bush emphasize crisis management — the ability to detect a biological event in process and to reduce its scope; prevention emphasizes actions that could be taken to stop an attack before it occurs
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Third patient dies of plague in remote Chinese town
Chinese authorities have sealed off a remote Chinese town after an outbreak of pneumonic plague; authorities have set up a cordon with a 17-mile radius around the town of Ziketan; public buses were pulled off the streets, and the police is patrolling on the streets, advising shops to close
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DHS is searching for buyers for Plum Island facility
The Plum Island Biosafety level 4 facility — the only type of research lab authorized to handle diseases that are communicable between humans and animals and for which there is no known cure — is aging; DHS has selected a Kansas site for a new, $500 million replacement; DHS is beginning to look for buyers for the Plum Island facility
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GAO slams choice of Kansas as location of new BioLab
In a critical report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that the process by which DHS selected Kansas as the site for the $450 million BioLab was not “scientifically defensible”; GAO said DHS greatly underestimated the chance of accidental release and major contamination from such research; Tornado Alley may not be safe
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Judge dismisses lawsuit objecting to Kansas location of biolab
Texas Bio- and Agro-Defense Consortium sued DHS over the department’s decision to build the new BioLab Level 4 in Kansas; judge dismisses case — but without prejudice, opening the way for the consortium to refile the lawsuit later
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Inkjet printer technology to be used in biosensors
Researchers describe a method for printing a toxin-detecting biosensor on paper using a FujiFilm Dimatix Materials Printer; the method relies on a “lateral flow” sensing approach similar to that used in a home pregnancy test strip
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Biohazards to be studied in Memphis
The University of Tennessee at Memphis inaugurates a new Level 3 Biohazard lab to develop new vaccines and antibiotics
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DARPA wants to stop biothreats before they spread
DARPA is looking to accelerate the response to pathogens, stopping the bugs before they even start; the goal: persistent, universal immunity by speeding up long-term resistance to new and unknown pathogens
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Scientists block Ebola infection in cell-culture experiments
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered two biochemical pathways that the Ebola virus relies on to infect cells; breakthrough could lead to first therapy for deadly disease
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Army lab find 9,220 uncatalogued vials of Ebola, anthrax, and plague
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Maryland finds 9,220 unregistered vials of Ebola, anthrax, plague, and other pathogens
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U.K. white supremacists plotted to use ricin against minorities
White supremacist cell in the U.K. plotted to use ricin to kill black people and other ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom; ricin is 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide
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Panel object to using bioterrorism funds for swine flu
The Obama administration’s requested to take $3 billion from the Project BioShield Special Reserve Fund for use in the effort to contain sine flu; expert panel says it a risky move
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Dutch researchers develop new virus detector
A prototype of a new system can detect within minutes if an individual is infected with a virus; the system carry out measurements many times faster than standard techniques, and it is also portable
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Schneier: no need to worry about terrorists poisoning food
Security maven Bruce Schneier says that fears of food-based bioterrorism are exaggerated: The quantities involved for mass poisonings are too great, the nature of the food supply too vast, and the details of any plot too complicated and unpredictable to be a real threat
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