Recent News

By Region: North America

Dual use education in neuroscience

(The Royal Society – Blog) Dealing with the challenge of the hostile exploitation of neurobiology, as with a number of developments in the life sciences and chemistry, is going to require a range of activities at different levels; one aspect of which involves building awareness of the concerns of the security community amongst those at Read More »

March 30, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biotechnology, Countermeasures, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
Share

US Requires New Dual-Use Biological Research Reviews

(Science AAAS) The new DURC policy—months in the making, and in part a reaction to the ongoing controversy over research involving the H5N1 avian flu viruses—will expand current reviews already conducted by two major biomedical research funding agencies, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Both agencies Read More »

March 30, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
Share

Flu surveillance lacking

(Nature.com) When researchers created strains of the H5N1 avian influenza virus that could spread easily between mammals, they argued that their work would aid in surveillance, by identifying mutations to watch for in the wild. But an analysis by Nature paints a dire picture of how animal flu viruses are being monitored. In 2010, the Read More »

March 30, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Agents & Toxins, Agriculture, International, and Public Health
Share

Journals Pursue Guidelines on Publishing Sensitive Disease Research

(Global Security Newswire) Editors for two scientific journals are developing plans for balancing scientific interests and security concerns in publishing potential future research that could have biological weapons applications, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported on Wednesday. Clinical Infectious Diseases and the Journal of Infectious Diseases “are developing policies that address these Read More »

March 30, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
Share

Flu Redux

(Science Now) Late last year, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) had recommended that two science teams delete key details from papers submitted to Science and Nature that describe how researchers made the H5N1 avian influenza virus more transmissible between mammals, possibly providing a blueprint for starting a flu pandemic.