CRISPR-based technologies: prokaryotic defense weapons repurposed

Defense against Toxin Weapons

PREFACE The contents of this document are not be construed as an official Department of the Army position unless so designated by other authorized documents. Opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect doctrine. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to thank the investigators and staff of the Toxinology Division, USAMRIID for providing the backdrop for the accumulation of the in...

Defense against filoviruses used as biological weapons.

The filoviruses, Marburg and Ebola, are classified as Category A biowarfare agents by the Centers for Disease Control. Most known human infections with these viruses have been fatal, and no vaccines or effective therapies are currently available. Filoviruses are highly infectious by the airborne route in the laboratory, but investigations of African outbreaks have shown that person-to-person sp...

12 Medical Defense Against Protein Toxin Weapons

The term "toxin weapon" has been used to describe poisons, classically of natural origin but increasingly accessible by modern synthetic methods, which are suitable for delivery on a battlefield in a form that causes death or severe incapacitation at relatively low concentrations (reviewed in ref. I). Several of the most important toxin weapons are proteins, and these molecules are the focus of...

Biological Weapons Defense: Infectious Diseases and Counterbioterrorism

Susan Hunter’s book, AIDS in Asia: A Continent in Peril, tackles an important subject. The subheading leaves no doubt that this volume belongs squarely in the “next wave” school—Africa has been devastated by the AIDS epidemic, and Asia must be next. Hunter’s book paints a picture of a continent about to be engulfed in social, economic, and political chaos, all because of 1 small retrovirus. Unf...

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES Genetic Engineering and Biological Weapons