See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including the security impact of cutting biomedical research funding, updates to the Select Agent program guidelines, and assessing novel diagnostics in outbreak settings.
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- History proves the dangers of underfunded health programs (TIME)
- 21st century health threats need optimal budgeting (The Hill)
- Public health concerns in Trump’s new budget (Pandora Report)
- The realities of global health security (Contagion Live)
- Laurie Garrett: A huge sigh of relief on health care (CNN)
- DoD officials discuss countering WMD, threats posed by synthetic biology (Defense.gov)
- DARPA leading the debate on biosecurity and biosafety with genome editors (CW)
- This is how the world gets sick (Fast Company)
- The real threat to national security: deadly disease (NY Times)
SELECT AGENTS
- Guidance for Select Agent Regulation Training Requirements – Mar 2017 (CDC)
- Select Agents and Toxins Biosafety/Biocontainment Plan Guidance (CDC)
- Expert views on biological threat characterization for the U.S. Government (Wiley)
- Accelerating phage-based identification of Bacillus anthracis (DTIC)
- Preparing for biological threats: Addressing the needs of pregnant women (Wiley)
- Rapid DNA vaccination against Burkholderia pseudomallei (T&F)
- Infodemiology in the battle against Ebola (WPMU)
- Surveillance of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever in Pakistan (The Lancet)
- Evaluating novel diagnostics in an outbreak setting: Ebola lessons learned (ASM)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- Here’s one drug safety rule the FDA should enact — quickly (STAT)
- Impact of pharmacies on pandemic influenza vaccine administration (APhA)
- Can’t really know if farmers are cutting back on antibiotics, GAO says (NPR)
- Dual antibody treatment suppresses HIV-like virus in monkeys (NIH)
- Should the U.S. Government buy a drug company to save money? (NPR)
- Monoclonal antibodies, the brown stuff, and preventing recurrent C. diff (RIPC)
- Immunogenicity of MERS-CoV DNA vaccines based on the spike protein (Nature)
- Protein Sciences plans to develop two H7N9 vaccine candidates (Healio)
- More information needed to oversee use drugs in food animals (GAO)
- Powdered vaccine raises hopes of stopping a top killer of kids (NPR)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- USDA tests Brazilian beef for pathogens amid meatpacking scandal (Reuters)
- Disinfectants and the rise of the resistant bug (Contagion Live)
- USDA steps up Brazilian beef inspections over scandal allegations (CIDRAP)
- Rise of superbug tuberculosis hampers global control efforts (Reuters)
- H1N1 varying widely in hemagglutinin stability transmit efficiently (PLOS Pathogens)
- Avian flu threat re-emerges as new outbreaks are reported in U.S. flocks (PennState)
- Domestic pig unlikely reservoir for MERS-CoV (CDC EID)
RESEARCH & TECH
- FRET-based platform for one-step detection of pathogenic bacteria (ACS)
- Uncertainties using internet tools for determining disease incidence (JAMA)
- Persistence of pandemic influenza on the development of children (SD)
SPECIAL INTEREST
- A microbe hunter plies her trade in space (NPR)
- Meet the omics entrepreneur who also co-founded EMBL (Labiotech)
- Berquist named director of Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases (IIAD)
- In Pictures: construction of National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (K-State)
- Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations CEO interview (IAVI)
- Spotlight on PNNL’s biological systems science research (PNNL)
- ‘Inferno’ brings insight and humanity to Ebola outbreak (WaPo)
- The father of the microbiome (WUSTL)
