Year: 2022

CELL BASED VACCINES are emerging to replace chicken egg techniques which are antiquated and slow. "On November 20, 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Flucelvax, which is the first U.S.-licensed (trivalent inactivated) influenza vaccine manufactured using cell culture technology." Good start. No more chicken eggs. http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/vaccine/cell-based.htm View in LinkedIn

DARPA DOING ADVANCED RESEARCH. "Recent innovations in biotechnology have significantly reduced the cost, time, infrastructure and level of training required to manipulate genetic code and alter the behavior of an organism. Numerous defense missions could benefit from the resulting biotechnology capabilities." http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/DSO/Programs/Chronicle_of_Lineage_Indicative_of_Origins_(CLIO).aspx View in LinkedIn

ONE DARPA GOAL IS BIOSECURITY. "If successful, CLIO will establish enduring control elements that protect against intentionally harmful genetic engineering ... The program will advance the field of synthetic biology with new insight into the design and behavior of biological systems." http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/DSO/Programs/Chronicle_of_Lineage_Indicative_of_Origins_(CLIO).aspx View in LinkedIn

VIRUSES: DARPA'S CLEAR TARGET OF BIOSECURITY. "According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in the past 20 years, out of the newly recognized pathogens that impact human and animal health, approximately 44 percent are viruses." http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/DSO/Programs/Prophecy_(Pathogen_Defeat).aspx View in LinkedIn

DARPA WANTS TO TRANSFORM VACCINES MANUFACTURE. "The Prophecy program seeks to transform the vaccine and drug development enterprise from observational and reactive to predictive and preemptive by spurring development of a multidisciplinary approach to predicting viral evolution." It's 2015 total requested budget is $2.9 Bn. http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/DSO/Programs/Prophecy_(Pathogen_Defeat).aspx View in LinkedIn

SYNBIO AND BW THREATS. The preceding set of posts presents an optimistic picture of SYNBIO, combined with DNA vaccines as a highly responsive response to a BW threat, and if combined with proactive blood screening for novel viral strains, can provide an improved preparedness. View in LinkedIn

CYBERWARFARE is the subject for consideration in the next series of blogs for one reason only: it is probable that developments in the cyber world will quite quickly be matched by similar biological developments, just as was the case in cybercrime and future biocrime. View in LinkedIn

CYBERWARFARE AS LEADING INDICATOR OF BIOWARFARE. "During the past century, more than 500 million people died of infectious diseases. Several tens of thousands of these deaths were due to the deliberate release of pathogens or toxins ... Two international treaties outlawed biological weapons ... have largely failed to stop countries from conducting offensive weapons research." http://lnkd.in/dnjsN5T View in LinkedIn

CYBERWARFARE AS LEADING INDICATOR OF BIOWARFARE http://lnkd.in/dnjsN5T View in LinkedIn

US INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE threat assessment for 2014, by threat type and geography. http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/DNIthreats2014.pdf View in LinkedIn