International Conference on Biothreats and Biodefense

Chicago, IL, October 21, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Biothreats and Biodefense ’12

International Conference on Biothreats and Biodefense was organized by OMICS Group to provide the scientific platform for bringing together the international community sharing the agenda of developing transformative countermeasures for known and unknown biothreats held on October 15-17, 2012 at DoubleTree by Hilton, Chicago, USA. Biodefence-2012 was attended by researchers from academia, corporate and defense organizations in the various scientific disciplines like Formal Sciences, Applied Sciences, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences.

Stef Stienstra

Stef Stienstra, Reserve commander of the Royal Dutch Navy presented his topic on Peroxide in nanoparticles is an effective method to disinfect areas contaminated with B-agents. His talk included the reason behind the recurrent cycle of contamination, contamination which was a result of a bioterror attack and the effective use of hydrogen nanoparticles in the disinfection of MRSA infected hospitals. It is to be expected that it will be also effective in contaminated areas with other bacteria, viruses and spores after a bioterror attack.

Randall S. Murch

Randall S. Murch, Professor in Practice at Virginia Tech University with 23 years of experience in Federal Bureau of Investigation gave his talk on Microbial Forensics: Present and future. Here is a bird’s view of his presentation.

Microbial forensics, emerged from the creation of the first-ever Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) forensic investigative program in the FBI Laboratory in 1996. At the beginning, this program was an inter-agency endeavor involving the FBI, Department of Defense Military Medical Laboratories, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Department of Energy National Laboratories. Today, the forensic characterization and source attribution of biological weapons and associated forensic evidence is a very important priority in U.S. biodefense planning and preparedness. Concomitantly, the Federal inter-agency involved in this arena has become a “whole of Government” enterprise. The science of microbial forensics draws upon a variety of disciplines and capabilities and is designed, developed, validated and applied to inform investigative, intelligence, legal and policy questions and support decision making. Microbial forensics seeks to address requirements of sound science, but also those of the users of the information. The soundness of the science is an end-to-end proposition, from sample collection through reporting and interpretation of results and communication of conclusions. Microbial forensics is rapidly evolving and has and will continue to leverage advancing methods and technologies developed for other purposes which exploit biological, genomic, biochemical, chemical and physical information of forensic value for both sample characterization and also inter comparison that can be usefully and validly interpreted. Even with powerful current emerging analytical and knowledge exploitation capabilities, the field is confronted by gaps, opportunities and “grand scientific challenges” which overlap with those of other fields and some of which converge on the limits of scientific knowledge.

Speakers
1. Stef Stienstra
2. Kei Amemiya
3. Randall S. Murch
4. David Deshazer
5. Salina Parveen
6. Suppiah Paramalingam Sivalingam
7. Albert Kabore
8. Siriwan Wongkoon
9. Ellie Graeden
10. Syed A. Hashsham
11. Laura A. Kwinn
12. Michael Whiteside
13. Gbadebo Oladosu
14. Jamie L. Johnson
15. Li Zuo
16. Richard Jaffe
17. Susan Coller Monarez
18. Carol D. Linden
19. Igor Smirnov
20. Charlotte Sortedahl
21. Dermot Cox
22. Aurelio Bonavia
23. Tim Trevan
24. Irimpan I. Mathews
25. Stef Stienstra
26. Todd H. Rider
27. Yoshimi Kuroiwa
28. Subroto Chatterjee
29. Bernd Klaubert
30. Katja Mertens
31. Hidehito Mukai
32. John D. Loike
33. Joseph Kanabrocki