The Pandora Report

Sick to your stomach? Make sure to tweet about it! Seriously – the UK Food Standards Agency is using social media to track stomach bugs like norovirus. Before we venture down the biodefense rabbit hole, have you ever wondered what would happen if college students tried to hack a gene drive?

GMU Biodefense PhD Writes ‘Groundbreaking’ Thesis on Cyber Warfare– GMU Biodefense PhD graduate, Craig Wiener, is talking about his PhD experience and the amazing work he did on his dissertation. Craig’s story is pretty unique – between the commute from his position at the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, to his background in biodefense and research in synthetic biology, he’s a prime example of the diverse and passionate students we see in the GMU biodefense program. “Wiener’s PhD dissertation, ‘Penetrate, Exploit, Disrupt, Destroy: The Rise of Computer Network Operations as a Major Military Innovation,’ is groundbreaking, said Gregory Koblentz, director of Mason’s biodefense graduate program, and it has nothing to do with biodefense. Wiener connected some rather complicated dots in determining the origins of computer network exploitation and computer network attacks in the U.S. intelligence community. ‘I’ve established that computer network operations are a major military innovation, and it was developed by the U.S. intelligence community…. It’s the first time the intelligence community has developed a weapon system,’ said Wiener.” A labor of love, his work will significantly contribute to the history of cyber warfare and is a prime example of what makes GMU such a wonderful university to study.

FDA Review of 2014 Variola NIH Incident

The newly released report, “FDA Review of the 2014 Discovery of Vials Labeled ‘Variola’ and Other Vials Discovered in an FDA-Occupied Building on the NIH Campus”, details the findings and corrective actions following the FDA’s internal investigation of the 2014 incident. The compilation includes several interviews, findings from reports and site visits, and a timeline of events leading to the discovery of the 327 vials on July 1, 2014. Some of the findings include: “There was no single individual responsible for the entire contents and operation of the shared cold storage area. FDA did not follow the CDC Select Agent Guidelines for the packaging and transfer of samples to a high containment facility for securing the materials.” There were six findings in the report, which included corrective actions, future actions, and compliance mechanisms. The report also includes the table regarding the disposition of the 327 vials. “It was noted that an internal, inward-looking investigation by the FDA had not formally started at the time of the hearing because both the CDC and FBI were in the midst of their own investigations of the incident.  However, FDA informally started an internal review and audit of the incident to understand the failure points to implement best policies and practices to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.”

Global Virome Project – You may remember reading  this summer about finding the next patient zero via a speaking engagement from USAID Director for Global Health Security and Development Unit, Dr. Dennis Carroll. The truth is that outbreaks like Zika and Ebola have shown us that countermeasures are invariably weak and viruses like to hide out in nature. This formidable reality has led to the development of the Global Virome Project, which looks to catalogue viruses from all over the world as a means of identifying the threats before they can identify us. “The idea has been around for a while and is supported by individual scientists and organizations including the US Agency for International Development, the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance, HealthMap, ProMED, and the epidemic risk firm Metabiota. Now support for a global push may be picking up momentum, as scientists and health organizations find themselves repeatedly called upon whenever new threats arise.” An extension of the vision that brought about the PREDICT project, the Global Virome Project looks to make the process more efficient and effective by utilizing new methodology. While knowing the existence of a disease does not equate to preparedness, the understanding of how it interacts with humans and where it hides can help us determine risk and vaccine development. “For instance, knowing that the risk of contracting viruses carried in a species of bats is highest when their offspring are young might push ecotourism operators to avoid caves at those times. And Carroll said filling in more of the picture of the viral world will simply help scientists understand its patterns and interactions better. Right now, predictions are based on the behaviors of a few hundred known viruses, he said.”

2017-2022 Health Care Preparedness and Response Capabilities – The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response has released their report outlining “the high-level objectives that the nation’s health care delivery system, including HCCs [health care coalitions] and individual health care organizations, should undertake to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies.” The report further breaks down the capabilities into four sections that will, when combined and fully followed, enable full readiness. The four sections are Foundation for Health Care and Medical Readiness, Health Care and Medical Response Coordination, Continuity of Health Care Service Delivery, and Medical Surge. The report is extremely detailed and includes a wide variety of methods for identifying and coordinating resource needs during an emergency, setting up a health care EOC, implementing out-of-hospital medical surge response, and much more.

Blue Ribbon Study Panel Report on Biodefense Indicators– I remember the excitement during the Blue Ribbon Study Panel presentation on their recommendations since the Ebola outbreak. The room was packed with so many contributors to biodefense and there was a sense of fervor regarding the possibilities that could come from their 87 recommendations. Sadly, it seems that enthusiasm isn’t enough to get the work completed. It seems that an overwhelming majority haven’t been completed, according to the latest report. In fact, Tom Ridge and Joseph Lieberman have taken to TIME magazine as a means to implore the incoming administration to help protect the U.S. from bioterrorism and infectious disease threats.

Nanotherapeutics Opens Plant Near Progress Park – Nanotherapeutics opened their new $138 million 183,000-square-foot plant near Progress Park in Alachua, which was built to fulfill a DoD grant that could be worth up to $359 million. “The purpose and the capability of this facility is really fundamentally to avoid a surprise and be better prepared,” said Chris Hassell, deputy assistant secretary of defense for chemical and biological defense. “Sixty years after Pearl Harbor we were surprised again with the anthrax mailings and other events of 9/11, so this whole issue of surprise is a common area of discussion, what can we do to avoid surprise, to defend it, to respond to it more effectively and to that end this facility is very important to our capability to do that.” The DoD maintains several contracts for vaccine and treatment manufacturing, however Nanotherapeutics has tackled several of the struggles with efficiency that have plagued several other efforts. Utilizing disposable bags within stainless steel equipment allows for less clean-up and quicker transitions to help make the process more efficient and successful. The new plant follows strict NIH and military guidelines regarding waste and handling of hazardous materials, not to mention a pretty hefty security system.

UNSC 1540 Resolution – The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted on Resolution 1540 this week, which is especially prudent given the devastation in Syria and use of chemical weapons. The overwhelming adoption of the 1540 review resolution furthered the fight to keep WMD’s out of non-state actor hands. Resolution 1540 was adopted in 2004 and extended periodically through 2012 as a means of imposing binding obligations on all states to adopt legislation to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. The open debate, “Preventing Catastrophe: A Global Agenda for Stopping the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction to Non-State Actors” took place on December 15th, ending the second review of 1540 implementation. “The Council is expected to adopt a resolution endorsing the review and noting the findings and recommendations contained in its report, which was agreed by the 1540 Committee last Friday”. The comprehensive review process has been somewhat challenging lately due to differences in Council member priorities and ambitions. “Russia and China made clear that they did not see the need for radical changes in the functioning or mandate of the Committee, whereas Spain, as the chair of the Committee, and other Council members, such as the UK and the US, were pushing for more substantive measures and new approaches. As a result, the discussions in the 1540 Committee on the report of the review were quite contentious, in particular with regard to its conclusions and recommendations. It took more than two months of intense negotiations after the Committee considered the first draft of the report on 27 September to reach agreement on the final document. The whole review process has taken almost two years.” We’ll make sure to keep you posted as news is released!

Avian Influenza and Global Trade Conditions– A series of avian influenza outbreaks are challenging the positive 2017 outlook for the global poultry industry. These events are especially distressing for the poultry industry as the global pork and beef production is rising. “The return of avian influenza is now shaking up global trade conditions and is especially affecting the outlook for Asia, Europe and Africa,” the report said. “It will also be a test for the U.S. industry after last year’s multiple AI outbreaks. As many European and Asian countries are exporters of meat and breeding stock, this will certainly impact the outlook for the industry and could shake up meat and breeder trade again.” The increasing protectionism and disease-related traded restrictions have caused some slowing within the poultry trade. This report comes at an auspicious time as the WHO warns of a H7N9 pandemic.

Zika Virus Updates- The most recent Florida Department of Health daily updates can be found here, which found six new travel-related cases on 12/14 and no new locally acquired cases. The CDC has issued a travel advisory for Brownsville, TX due to Zika virus. A new study has estimated the prevalence of Zika by the time a microcephaly case is detected. Saad-Roy, et al. (2016) explain, “this model gives us the probability distribution of time until detection of the first microcephaly case. Based on current field observations, our results also indicate that the percentage of infected pregnant women that results in fetal abnormalities is more likely to be on the smaller end of the 1% to 30% spectrum that is currently hypothesized. Our model predicts that for import regions with at least 250,000 people, on average 1,000 to 12,000 will have been infected by the time of the first detection of microcephaly, and on average 200 to 1,500 will be infectious at this time. Larger population sizes do not significantly change our predictions.” The CDC has reported, as of December 14th, 4,617 cases in the U.S.

Stories You May Have Missed: 

• Biological Security Threats Situation Report – In this report from the Danish Centre for Biosecurity and Biopreparedness, you can find an assessment of current biological threats and risks. The authors note that “the overall likelihood of a major biological terrorist attack must be viewed as relatively low at the moment, but a successful attack could have grave consequences for societies.” Focusing on the capacity to respond to intentional attacks through biosecurity and biopreparedness is vital. The report looks at the risks from state, non-state terrorists, and criminals in its assessment.
• DHS Backs Development of Livestock Disease Outbreak Readiness Program – America has a soft underbelly and it’s livestock and agriculture. The new funding for the National Agricultural Biosecurity Center (NABC) project to develop the readiness program is just over $330,000 and “will provide a clearinghouse for planning, training and knowledge products to help state, local, tribal and territorial entities prepare for transboundary livestock disease outbreaks.he program also entails extensive collaboration of academia, private industry and state governments. Faculty and staff in the Beef Cattle Institute and the College of Veterinary Medicine will provide subject matter expertise and assistance building the website, and student workers will be employed to assist with the project.”
• ABSA International  – Don’t miss the USDA and the Agricultural Research Service’s 4th International Biosafety and Biocontainment Symposium- Gobal Biorisk challenges: Agriculture and Beyond. This symposium will take place from February 6-9th at Baltimore Convention Center. Topics will range from biorisk management challenges in one health world, arthropod containment in plant research, and much more!