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For Better or For Worse

Nov 07, 2008

An article in Scientific American says that it is unclear whether the increase of biodefense research and funding has made Americans safer. With those increases, potential weapons are in the hands of more and more researchers, and some say that this growth increases the chance of an accidental release. Despite those concerns, NIAID's director of extramural research Michael Kurilla tells SciAm that "'we're much better off' having spent $41 billion on bioterror research since 2002."

Breaking News
The Scan

mRNA-Based Vaccine on the Way in China

China may soon have its own mRNA-based vaccine, according to Nature News.

Arranged Killing, Fraud Alleged by Prosecutors

The Wall Street Journal reports that prosecutors allege that the co-founder of a biotech arranged to have a business associate who threatened to expose him as a fraud killed.

Whirlwind Decade of CRISPR

The New York Times looks back at the 10 years since the University of California, Berkeley's Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues published their CRISPR paper.

PNAS Papers on Blue Cone Monochromacy Structural Variants, HIV-1 Mutant, T-ALL

In PNAS this week: structural variants linked to blue cone monochromacy, HIV-1 variants affecting the matrix protein p17, and more.