See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including gain-of-function research, emergency Zika response, and chemical facility airstrikes.
BIODEFENSE POLICY & PRACTICES
- Six policy options for conducting gain-of-function research (CIDRAP)
- Partnerships, not parachutists, for Zika research (NEJM)
- DTRA program helps nations tackle biological threats (DoD News)
- Obama’s emergency request for Zika funding stalls in Congress (STAT)
- Biolabs investigation wins national journalism prize (USA Today)
- Smallpox battleground, biowarfare allegations, GOF research (Pandora Report)
- The new normal: Zika virus and other unusual suspects (CBRNe Portal)
- Liberia shutters Red Cross amid inquest into Ebola spending (Reuters)
- States worry they don’t have money to fight Zika (WaPo)
- Real superheroes wear lab coats (USDA)
SELECT AGENTS
- Perspectives on West Africa Ebola Virus Disease outbreak, 2013–2016 (EID)
- Experimental Ebola antibody protects monkeys (NIH)
- Emory University admitting patient with suspected Lassa fever (Emory)
- Lassa fever rages on in Nigeria (Disease Daily)
- US Ebola Treatment Center clinical laboratory support (JCM)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE COUNTERMEASURES
- BioCryst’s Zika drug shows promise in mice (Reuters)
- Resistance-proof antibiotics may never exist – but there are promising alternatives (Conv)
- A biotech evangelist seeks a Zika dividend (NY Times)
- FDA says engineered anti-Zika mosquito environmentally safe (Reuters)
CHEMICAL THREATS
- ISIS launches two chemical attacks in northern Iraq (The Guardian)
- Chemical safety and security in a technologically evolving world (OPCW)
- Why ISIL’s chemical weapons are causing the west to panic (Georgetown)
- ISIS detainee’s information led to 2 chemical facility airstrikes (NY Times)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Zika and birth defects (The Scientist)
- Mosquito spraying may not stop Zika, other methods needed (Reuters)
- China and France report ongoing high-path avian flu outbreaks (CIDRAP)
- Zika-carrying mosquitoes developing resistance to top insecticide (STAT)
- Studies cite possible Zika-meningitis link, note virus in saliva (CIDRAP)
RADIOLOGICAL & NUCLEAR THREATS
- Israeli placental cell therapy could cure radiation sickness (Reuters)
- Is Fukushima’s exclusion zone doing more harm than radiation? (BBC)
- Fukushima keeps fighting radioactive tide 5 years after disaster (NY Times)
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
- Current Zika product pipeline (WHO) .pdf
- PCR offers new way to find antibodies and diagnose disease (C&EN)
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