Recent News

By Region: North America

MRSA Superbug Protein Structure Solved

(Global Biodefense) A research team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center is the first to decipher the 3-D structure of a protein that confers antibiotic resistance from one of the most worrisome disease agents: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The Vanderbilt team’s findings may be an important step in combating the MRSA public health threat over the Read More »

February 19, 2014
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, and Research
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Company Creates BioWatch ‘Lab in a Box’

(National Defense) After six years of development, a technology firm says it has created what has been a holy grail for the Department of Homeland Security’s BioWatch program: a laboratory in a box. PositiveID, a Delray Beach, Fla.-based company said its M-BAND — microfluidic bio-agent autonomous networked detector — has the ability to collect and Read More »

February 18, 2014
| Filed under North America, Biotechnology, Countermeasures, and Research
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Powerful Bacterial Immune Response Defined by New Study

(Global Biodefense) T-cells, the elite guard of the immune system in humans and other mammals, ignore normal biologic protocol and swing into high gear when attacked by certain fast-moving bacteria, reports a team of researchers led by a UC Davis immunologist. The description of this immune pathway provides new information vital for designing vaccines and Read More »

February 17, 2014
| Filed under North America, Public Health, and Research
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Genetically Modified Mosquitoes to Be Released in Panama This Weekend

(Epoch Times) Starting Feb. 15, UK bio-tech company Oxitec will begin releasing genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes in Nuevo Chorillo, Panama. It will release 240,000 GM mosquitoes a week. Female Anopheles mosquitoes spread malaria, dengue, and other diseases. The idea is to release male mosquitoes genetically engineered to produce offspring that will die, thus decreasing the Read More »

February 16, 2014
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Biotechnology, and International
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Operation Pure Cure tests bioterrorism response

(DVIDS) An employee goes rogue and sets off an explosion inside the urban headquarters of a large biotechnology company. A hazardous materials team from the company makes entry into the smoking building but must withdraw after detecting radioactivity. Local first responders that have arrived on the scene determine that it’s time to call in the Read More »