Global Biodefence January 4, 2023 Although the hot air decontamination process is within materials specifications for aircraft, extended hot air exposure may affect sensitive systems. Germination occurs when a bacterial spore develops into a growing, vegetative bacterial cell. While spores are resistant to environmental extremes such as heat, most vegetative bacterial cells are susceptible to higher temperatures, so causing germination and raising ambient temperature is one way kill bacterial spores. Researchers at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWC-DD) field tested the bacterial spore germination process by spreading over 100 million human-safe bacterial surrogate for Bacillus anthracis bacterial spores […]
Tag Archives: Bioweapons
2021 BAA for Development of Medical Countermeasures for Biological Threats
Global Biodefense March 2, 2021 The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) solicitation contains multiple distinct Research Areas. The goal of Research Area 1 is to advance vaccine technologies and platforms which could be deployed against agents important for biodefense and/or emerging pathogens. Pathogens of particular interest include (but are not limited to): Burkholderia spp, Francisella tularensis, Yersinia pestis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida auris. A second objective is to support development of vaccines for emerging viruses and pandemic preparedness. Targets of particular interest include: Vaccines that target coronaviruses with pandemic potential, Development of pan-coronavirus (pan-CoV) […]
Experts ‘scan horizon’ to help prepare governments for next major biosecurity threat
EurekAlert February 3, 2021 A group of 41 academics and figures from industry and government from across the globe submitted 450 questions which were then debated, voted on and ranked to define the 80 most urgent key questions facing the UK government when it comes to biological security. They were subdivided into six categories: bioengineering; communication and behaviour; disease threats (including pandemics); governance and policy; invasive alien species; and securing biological materials and securing against misuse. The questions offer a research agenda for biological security in the UK that can assist the targeting of research resources and inform the implementation […]
Biodefense Headlines – 8 November 2020
Global Biodefense November 8, 2020 This week’s selections include COVID-19 surveillance data systems; pandemic impact on measles, polio vaccination rates; and revisiting a verification mechanism for the BWC… read more.
How prepared is the world for the next epidemic? This tool shows most countries are not.
Washington Post June 21, 2018 AA team of researchers at CDC has developed a tool that spotlights gaps in preparedness, and actions that countries and organizations can take to close them. The new website, PreventEpidemics.org gives an individual score to each country and uses color codes to rank the world by five levels of preparedness. More than 60 percent of countries, representing nearly 5 billion people, have not volunteered to conduct these epidemic preparedness evaluations, including most of Europe, Russia, China, India and virtually all South America…read more.