Recent News

By Region: North America

Secretary Napolitano Outlines DHS Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request

Secretary Napolitano Outlines DHS Fiscal Year 2012 Budget RequestGov MonitorNational Bio and Agro Defense Facility (NBAF): $150 million is requested to begin construction of the NBAF, which will serve as a new, state-of-the-art biosafety level 3 & 4 facility. Work performed at NBAF will lead to the development of vaccines and …and more »

March 2, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, and Policy & Initiatives
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AVI BioPharma & Dept. of Defense Successfully Complete Rapid Response Exercise

AVI BioPharma, Inc., a developer of RNA-based therapeutics, announced today the successful completion in 11 days of a second formal rapid response exercise centered around the dengue virus, a potentially fatal pathogen that infects up to 100 million people globally each year. In 2009, AVI successfully completed its first formal TMT rapid response exercise against Read More »

March 1, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biotechnology, and Countermeasures
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How much has the war on bioterror cost scientists?

A new study challenges the notion that post-9/11 rules which placed stricter limits on pathogens research stymied scientific productivity. In the wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, and subsequent anthrax mailings, the US government instituted tougher controls on research into human, animal and plant pathogens and toxins that could be used for nefarious Read More »

March 1, 2011
| Filed under North America, Bioterrorism, and Research
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CDC Details Cause of 2009 Plague Death

The University of Chicago scientist who died in 2009 while conducting vaccine research using a weakened strain of plague bacterium succumbed to his infection because of an underlying medical condition, Bloomberg reported last week (see GSN, Sept. 22, 2009). The enervated strain of Yersinia pestis that Malcolm Casadaban, 60, worked with was thought to pose Read More »

March 1, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, and Research
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HHS awards contracts to develop new flu vaccine technology

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded two contracts today to help make vaccine available more quickly for seasonal flu outbreaks and pandemics. The contracts for advanced development of new types of vaccine and new ways to make flu vaccine known as next-generation recombinant influenza vaccine total $215 million.