NIAID reports ‘tremendous progress’ in biodefense research
Biomedical researchers in government, academia and industry have made tremendous progress working collaboratively towards developing countermeasures for bioterrorism, according to a report issued today on research funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health. The NIAID Biodefense Research Agenda for CDC Category A Agents–Progress Report describes myriad steps the Institute has taken since February 2002 to catalyze the development of vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for the most threatening bioterror agents. It was in February 2002 that NIAID convened the first Blue Ribbon Panel on Bioterrorism and its Implications for Biomedical Research, which provided NIAID with objective expertise on the Institute’s biodefense future research plans and helped identify the highest priority areas.