Biosecurity News and Research

RSS

Biosecurity is a set of preventive measures designed to reduce the risk of transmission of infectious diseases, quarantined pests, invasive alien species, living modified organisms.

Study identifies epigenetic changes that occur in adult stem cells to generate different body tissues

The team led by Manel Esteller, director of the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program in the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona and ICREA researcher, has identified epigenetic changes that occur in adult stem cells to generate different body tissues. The finding is published this week in The American Journal of Pathology.

3 Oct 2012

SLU study: Many U.S. schools not prepared for bioterrorism attacks, outbreaks of pandemics

Many U.S. schools are not prepared for bioterrorism attacks, outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases or pandemics, despite the recent 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic that resulted in more than 18,000 deaths worldwide, Saint Louis University researchers say.

15 Sep 2012

Review explores whether HPV vaccination of young men is warranted and cost effective

Vaccination against human papilloma virus (HPV) is recommended for young women to protect them from HPV infection and cervical cancer. Male HPV immunization is increasingly a topic of debate in the medical community. A timely review of the literature published in Viral Immunology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, explores whether HPV vaccination of young men is warranted and cost effective.

8 Aug 2012

Australian scientists discover new virus in bats

Australian scientists have discovered a new virus in bats that could help shed light on how Hendra and Nipah viruses cause disease and death in animals and humans. The new virus - named 'Cedar' after the Queensland location where it was discovered - is a close relative of the deadly Hendra and Nipah viruses.

3 Aug 2012

Children missing out on in battle against TB

The number of children diagnosed with tuberculosis only represents the tip of the iceberg, according to the University of Sydney’s Associate Professor Ben Marais, a specialist in childhood tuberculosis writing in the latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

25 Jul 2012

Neogen fourth quarter revenues increase 11.4% to $48,545,000

Neogen Corporation announced today that its revenues for the fourth quarter of its FY 2012, which ended May 31, increased 11.4% from the previous year's comparable quarter to $48,545,000. Net income for the fiscal year's final quarter was $0.25 per share, the same as the prior year's fourth quarter of $0.25 per share.

24 Jul 2012

Censoring 'dual-use' scientific research not an effective strategy to mitigate security risks

"It's easy to get the impression that recent controversy over research into mutated versions of the H5N1 flu virus has created a clear split between a scientific community that wants the research to proceed and the results to be published and a biosecurity community that doesn't," biological-weapons expert Tim Trevan writes in this Nature opinion piece.

23 Jun 2012

U.S. journal Science publishes controversial H5N1 research

The U.S. journal Science on Thursday published the results of a controversial study in which researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands "identified five mutations apparently necessary to make the [H5N1] bird flu virus spread easily among ferrets, which catch the same flus that humans do," the New York Times reports (McNeil, 6/21).

22 Jun 2012

NIH responds to criticism over handling of controversial bird flu studies

In a letter dated April 25, Amy Patterson, associate director for science policy in the office of the director of the National Institutes of Health, "has refuted criticism of the way a meeting held to allow a biosecurity advisory group to review controversial bird flu studies was handled," denying "the agenda was crafted to achieve a predetermined outcome," the Canadian Press/Winnipeg Free Press writes.

7 May 2012

Nature publishes first of two controversial studies on H5N1 avian flu

"In a long-awaited study that helped prompt a contentious debate over the wisdom of conducting research that has the potential to help as well as harm, scientists reported Wednesday that they had engineered a mutant strain of [H5N1] bird flu that can spread easily between ferrets -- a laboratory animal that responds to flu viruses much as people do," the Los Angeles Times (Brown, 5/3).

4 May 2012

One of the controversial avian flu studies published in full finally

After endless debates and controversies on whether two studies that demonstrated how bird flu, also known as avian H5N1 influenza, or avian flu, should be published, one of them has appeared in the latest issue of the journal Nature in its entirety. The two studies aimed for publication in journals Nature and Science show how the bird flu virus could become transmissible from mammal-to-mammal; as humans are mammals, the same would apply to humans.

4 May 2012

Flu paper publication amidst threats of bioterrorism raises need for better rules of censorship

According to the editor of the scientific journal Nature, Dr Philip Campbell current procedures to assess and censor medical research potentially of use to terrorists need to be improved. He was speaking about the recent controversy regarding the bird flu virus H5N1 study. The study was initially stopped from publication fearing risk of bioterrorism. He was speaking to BBC News.

2 May 2012

'Mandatory oversight' of potentially dangerous biological research will be necessary

"In the sobering annals of disaster prevention, genetic manipulation of the H5N1 influenza virus is looming as a seminal case," John Steinbruner, director of the Center for International Security Studies at the University of Maryland, writes in an opinion piece in The Hill's "Congress Blog," noting that two "laboratory experiments have rendered the highly virulent avian strain transmissible among ferrets, strongly suggesting that it would be transmissible among humans as well."

2 May 2012

Antibiotic effective for plague gets FDA nod

Federal regulators – The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), have approved use of an antibiotic to treat plague, an extremely rare, sometimes-fatal bacterial infection.

30 Apr 2012

Dutch government grants export license allowing publication of controversial H5N1 study

"The Dutch government has agreed to grant an export license to allow Ron Fouchier, a virologist at the Erasmus Medical University in Rotterdam, to publish his work on H5N1 avian influenza in Science," Nature's "News Blog" reports (Owens, 4/27). "

30 Apr 2012

Senate committee questions federal officials about dual-use research of concern procedures

"Spurred by events surrounding two controversial H5N1 transmission studies, a U.S. Senate committee [on Thursday] questioned federal officials whose agencies have a stake in dual-use research of concern (DURC) about the procedures they use to spot possible bioterror threats," CIDRAP News reports.

27 Apr 2012

U.S. government must be prepared to handle dual use research of concern

"This week, a Senate panel is investigating biological security in the wake of" controversial "potentially dangerous research" on H5N1 avian influenza, "with good reason," Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) writes in a Washington Times opinion piece.

26 Apr 2012

Rep. Sensenbrenner sends second letter inquiring about U.S. government's review of controversial H5N1 studies

"A senior Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives is asking more questions about how the U.S. government reviewed two controversial H5N1 avian influenza studies, and how it wrote a new policy for reviewing taxpayer-funded studies that might be used for good and evil," ScienceInsider reports.

25 Apr 2012

Process of reviewing controversial experiments for publication must be streamlined in future

"We can worry less that a newly created bird flu virus might kill tens or hundreds of millions of people if it escaped from the laboratory," a New York Times editorial states. "But there is still some residual danger. And we remain appalled at the slipshod way in which this research was authorized despite its potential dangers to public health and national security," the editorial continues.

24 Apr 2012

U.S. gives go-ahead on publication of H5N1 research; Dutch regulators continue to debate

The U.S. government on Friday formally accepted a recommendation from the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) "to publish two controversial studies of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, moving the pair of papers another step closer to publication," ScienceInsider reports.