Biolab Creations, Mishaps, and News

[Kammy]

Texas Laboratory Tracks Deadly Diseases Worldwide

Texas Laboratory Tracks Deadly Diseases Worldwide
By Greg Flakus
Galveston, Texas
10 April 2009

"New illnesses appear all the time around the world and are often found to be variations of illnesses already known. But to be sure, samples of the virus or bacteria thought to be causing the illness are sent back to Galveston.

They end up in a 52,000 square-meter building - The Galveston National Laboratory-on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch. The lab's deputy director, Jim LeDuc says the staff on hand is ready for whatever comes in."

[Kammy]

Scientists uncover secrets of potential beioterror virus

Welcome to Galveston National Laboratory | News | Items

"GALVESTON, Texas —Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered a key tactic that the Rift Valley Fever virus uses to disarm the defenses of infected cells.

The mosquito-borne African virus causes fever in humans, inflicting liver damage, blindness and even death on a small percentage of the people it infects. Rift Valley fever also afflicts cattle, goats and sheep, resulting in a nearly 100 percent abortion rate in these animals. Its outbreaks periodically cause economic devastation in parts of Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe, and bioterrorism experts warn that its introduction to the United States would cripple the North American beef industry.

"It’s really important to know how this virus causes disease, and that’s what we’re doing here, working to understand its pathogenicity at the molecular level," said assistant professor Tetsuro Ikegami, lead author of a paper on the discovery now appearing in PLoS Pathogens."

[Kammy]

Researchers examine role of climate change in disease spread


"GALVESTON, Texas — Ever since scientists first proposed that our planet might be experiencing widespread climate change, concerns have been raised about its implications for the spread of arboviruses – viruses carried by arthropods such as mosquitoes, midges and ticks.

However, while alterations in temperature and rainfall are important factors in making new territory hospitable to an invading arbovirus, many other forces also play significant parts in new patterns of viral emergence.

Those factors include genetic mutation, the introduction of new species of mosquitoes, the presence of an immunologically vulnerable human population and ease of transportation of infected humans (Chikungunya virus); cyclic periods of high rainfall, modern irrigation projects, and livestock trade between Africa and southern Arabia (Rift Valley fever virus); and modern air transport, the availability of compatible mosquito species and large numbers of virus-spreading migratory birds (West Nile virus).

Of the four viruses under review, Higgs said, climate change could probably only be given the lion's share of the credit for the spread of Bluetongue virus. The midge-borne virus can cause fatal disease in sheep, goats and cattle and until about 10 years ago was limited to Africa. Then a warmer climate in Europe made it possible for the cold-sensitive Culex imicola midge species responsible for carrying the virus to move north. Today, borne by other midge species, Bluetongue has spread to 12 European countries.

"There are some confounding factors here, in that infected but asymptomatic livestock are being moved around, and midges can be spread great distances quickly by the wind," Higgs said. "But it seems clear that Bluetongue's dispersal has been driven by the northward expansion of Culex imicola, and that climate change may have contributed to that. If average temperatures increase in certain regions of the world as predicted by some experts, then species of arthropod vectors may disperse beyond their current geographic boundaries, and we need to be ready for the possibility that similar outbreaks could occur.""

[Kammy]

The Galveston County Daily News

Groups fights bill that protects biolab secrets

By Laura Elder
The Daily News

"Published May 8, 2009
Open government advocates are lining up to fight a bill they say would cripple the public’s right to information about deadly germs like those studied at the Galveston National Laboratory.

Critics say Senate Bill 2556 would allow laboratory operators to keep confidential all information pertaining to so-called select agents, including information about accidental infections and other releases of potentially lethal organisms."

[Kammy]

Let's send some of our samples here?:

DHS | National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center

[Kammy]

Introduction to Gene Targeting, Knockout - Vega Biolab

[Kammy]

HealthMap | Global disease alert map

[Kammy]

Stop The Bioterror Lab - National Biolab News

[Kammy]

Drains overflow at disease-study lab
UGA facility contaminated

Drains overflow at disease-study lab | lee.shearer@onlineathens.com

[Kammy]

Yale Daily News - Profs study deadly germ seen in Iraq

"Yale researchers are waging their own war against an invisible enemy in Iraq — a strain of multiresistant bacteria that has infected over 700 soldiers and been associated with seven deaths since 2003.

According to research published today in Genes and Development, a Yale team has identified 16 “alien islands” on the genome of Acinetobactar baumannii that are responsible for its virulence. The bacteria targets individuals with compromised immune systems, making Iraqi soldiers who suffer traumatic wounds ideal hosts for the “superbug.” The lab, which is led by Yale professor Michael Snyder, is responsible for developing the first complete sequence of the microbe’s genome.

“Alien islands” are DNA segments that the bacteria acquires from other microorganisms and retains if they provide a survival benefit.

“[A. baumannii] is a pathogen on the rise,” Snyder said. “It has become a more serious health concern in recent years, especially since it has evolved into more and more resistant forms.”