Recent News

By Region: North America

Pathogen Detection System Takes a Cue from Fireflies

(Food Safety News) Biology researchers in the United Kingdom have developed a device that can detect foodborne pathogens using a variant of a simple, seemingly unlikely chemical: Firefly luciferase, the enzyme that makes fireflies’ abdomens light up. The device, called “Bioluminescent Assay in Real-Time” (BART), pinpoints harmful bacteria such as Salmonella and Listeria on food Read More »

March 22, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biotechnology, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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IOM Report Provides Framework and Tools to Deliver Health Care Effectively During Catastrophic Disasters

(Institute of Medicine) While most areas of the country have systems in place to handle conventional disasters, such as a plane crash or building collapse, the infrastructure and systems to deliver health care during or following catastrophic situations, such as a widespread disease outbreak or a devastating earthquake, are rudimentary at best, says a new Read More »

March 22, 2012
| Filed under North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Rediscovered Native American remedy kills poxvirus

(Chemistry World) Smallpox has been eradicated, but the finding offers a possible treatment for poxvirus in the unlikely event of a bioterror attack or increased incidence of similar poxviruses such as monkey pox. Smallpox ravaged human populations for thousands of …

March 21, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Countermeasures, and Research
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Ebola: Advances Suggest Possible Cures for Fearsome Hemorrhagic Fevers

(The New York Times) Late last month, scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases reported that two well-known cancer drugs used against leukemia, Gleevec and Tasigna, prevented Ebola virus from replicating in a lab colony of human kidney cells. Earlier this month, researchers at the United States Army Medical Institute of Infectious Read More »

March 21, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, and Research
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Military advances battle against flu

(UPI) FORT BELVOIR, VA — U.S. drug-development company MediVector has been given a military contract to further develop a therapeutic against multiple influenza viruses. The broad-based therapeutic is Favipiravir (T-705). It could be effective against the 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus and drug-resistant influenza strains as well as common influenza.