Recent News

By Region: North America

Science Alone Does Not Establish Source of Anthrax Used in 2001 Mailings

A National Research Council committee asked to examine the scientific approaches used and scientific conclusions reached by the FBI during its investigation of the 2001 anthrax mailings found it is not possible to reach a definitive conclusion about the origins of the anthrax in letters mailed to New York City and Washington, D.C. based solely Read More »

February 15, 2011
| Filed under North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Navy Lab Refines Chem-Bio Sensor Tech

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory announced last week it has refined a potential chemical- and biological-weapon agent scanning system to spot and characterize minuscule amounts of warfare material (see GSN, Jan. 24). Scientists headed by Joshua Caldwell and Orest Glembocki discovered that specially engineered metal nanoparticles make “surface-enhanced Raman scattering” technology 108 million times more Read More »

February 14, 2011
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, and Research
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Amerithrax Revisited

In February 2010, the FBI closed its case on Bruce Ivins. Many in the bio community found this a bit odd since the study commissioned by the FBI on the science supporting the case had not yet been completed. More than a year later, this study will finally be released. National Research Council committee reviewing Read More »

February 14, 2011
| Filed under North America and Policy & Initiatives
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Prediction of Protein

– Protein Interactions Between Human Host and a Pathogen and its Application to Three Pathogenic Bacteria. Molecular understanding of disease processes can be accelerated if all interactions between the host and pathogen are known. The unavailability of experimental methods for large-scale detection of interactions across host and pathogen organisms hinders this process. Here we apply Read More »

February 14, 2011
| Filed under North America and Research
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Akonni Biosystems Signs License Pact with US Army Medical Research Institute

Akonni Biosystems signs license pact with US Army Medical Research Institute …pharmabiz.comThe new markets include global bio-security, where the rapid and low-cost detection of Category A bio-threat bacterial and viral agents is critical. …