Biomedical Research Enlisted to Protect Against Terrorist Attack

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced the creation of a nationwide group of multidisciplinary Regional Centers of Excellence for Biodefense Research (RCE), funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as a key element in the agency's strategic plan for strengthening the nation's biodefense capacity. Jorge Benach, Director of the University's Center for Infectious Diseases and a member of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, is heading the Bacterial Pathogenesis Section of the Northeastern Biodefense Center (NBC) and serves on the Executive Committee of the RCE, which will be administered jointly by the Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research of the New York State Department of Health and Columbia University.

Prof. Benach, an eminent microbiologist, achieved international recognition in 1982 for his participation in the team that identified the organism (Borrelia burgdorferi) that causes Lyme disease, the leading cause of carrier-borne infectious illness in the U.S. He is an editor of Infection and Immunity, a leading microbiology journal and serves on the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Council, a small number of distinguished scientists and lay citizens who advise the Director of NIAID (Anthony Fauci) on establishing national research priorities. He is also a member of the NIAID Blue Ribbon Panel on Bioterrorism Research and is participating in NIH's assessment of its outcomes research program.

James Bliska, Center for Infectious Diseases, will receive funding for research on Yersinia pestis, the agent of plague. Erich Mackow, Medicine, will be funded to conduct research on hantaviruses, a group of the viral hemorrhagic fevers, and Roy Steigbigel, Medicine, will conduct studies on Bacillus organisms that are models for Anthrax infections.

New Challenges to Conducting Research

As the role of scientific and particularly biomedical research has assumed greater importance for national security, first in the aftermath of 9/11 and the prolonged anthrax alarm that followed it and more recently with the creation of regional centers for biodefense, maintaining the critical balance between national defense, on the one hand, and freedom of scientific inquiry, on the other, assumed new dimensions of importance and challenge.

One of the most energetic figures in fostering dialogue among researchers and between researchers and policymakers has been Stony Brook alumnus Ronald W. Atlas, President of the American Society for Microbiology, Dean of the Graduate School, Professor of Biology and Co-Director of the Center for the Deterrence of Biowarfare and Bioterrorism at the University of Louisville.

In testimony delivered before the House Science Committee, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Prof. Atlas said, "the free exchange of scientific information has contributed to the saving of human life, to increased quality of life, and to greater promise for yielding future benefits to health and the environment. Public health and safety depend on the advancement of biomedical science which could be harmed by undue restrictions on publication of research. Responsible oversight and reasoned discussion is important at this critical juncture. National security may be best served by allowing the free flow of all scientific and technical information that is not directly connected to technology deemed critical to national security. Ultimately, open and collaborative research is key to US technological advances and to the protection of the citizenry against infectious diseases and bioterrorism."

As President of the American Society for Microbiology, Prof. Atlas has maintained a busy schedule of Congressional testimony, public appearances and leadership meetings, including a series he helped encourage the National Academies to initiate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies "to examine issues related to preserving scientific openness and strengthening national security in the new age of terrorism." The campus was pleased to have him as a speaker last spring - when he found only two familiar buildings from his last sojourn in 1968 - for both the Provost's Lecture Series and the Year of Community Ethics in Leadership program.