See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including gaps in understanding post-Ebola syndrome, emergency preparedness for laboratory personnel, and rapid detection technologies for food safety.
BIOPREPAREDNESS
- Pediatrics and public health: Working together to prepare for emergencies (CDC)
- Biological engagement programs: Reducing threats, strengthening security (FiPH)
- Emergency preparedness for laboratory personnel (CDC)
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- US defense agencies grapple with gene drives (Nature)
- The reality of Trump’s R&D cuts (Pandora Report)
- NJ accepts rights for people in quarantine to end Ebola suit (NY Times)
- Global catastrophic biological risks: Toward a working definition (JHSPH CHS)
- ‘Patients who should live are dying’: Greece’s public health meltdown (Guardian)
SELECT AGENTS
- SERS-based microdroplet assay for F1 antigens in Yersinia pestis (ACS)
- Comparing new-gen candidate vaccines against human orthopoxvirus (NCBI)
- Seroprevalence of F. tularensis among farmers and vets in Georgia (ProQuest)
- Tularemia: Complement C3 as a prompt for human macrophage death (ASM)
- Interdisciplinarity and environmental biology of anthrax (bioRxiv)
- Post-Ebola syndrome is something else to keep you up at night (ARS Technica)
- Antibody response differentially influenced by PLGA-PAD4 particles (Neoscriber)
- Differential microRNA analyses of B. pseudomallei and F. tularensis (Hindawi)
- Anion inhibitors of the β-carbonic anhydrase of Francisella tularensis (SD)
- Host factors involved in Ebola virus replication (Springer)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- Temporary total depletion of US licensed yellow fever vaccine (CDC)
- Vaccine design shows promise against African Horse Sickness Virus (BBSRC)
- Why a biodefense firm is going on a spending spree (WaPo)
- J&J inks 879M vaccine deal with Bavarian Nordic (BioPharma Dive)
- Emergent Biosolutions goes on a spending spree (Pandora Report)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Dengue fever cases top 100,000 in Sri Lanka’s outbreak (NPR)
- Case of Zika virus, likely spread by mosquito, is reported in Texas (NY Times)
- Rinderpest: How to tackle one of Africa’s goat plague (The Economist)
- Hantavirus infection confirmed; mice can contaminate food (FSN)
RESEARCH + TECH
- Disease sleuths unmask deadly encephalitis culprit (Science)
- Test-tube immune systems can speed vaccine development (VOA)
- Biosensors: Migrating from clinical to environmental industries (S Scholar)
- Directed evolution as a countermeasure to bioterrorism attacks (eJBio)
- Rapid sequencing of causative agents of bacteremia (bioRxiv)
SPECIAL INTEREST
- Rapid detection for food safety: Coverage from the Biodefense World Summit (Contagions)
- Scientists, stop thinking explaining science will fix things (Slate)
- Texas actress gets 18 years for mailing ricin to Obama (USA Today)
HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS
- Viral epidemics in Latin America from the 16th to 19th Centuries (Springer)
- Comparative scaffolding and of ancient plague bacterial genomes (MGEN)
- Farming, Famine and Plague – The Dance of Death (Springer)
