Biological Research: Rethink Biosafety

November 11, 2015

(Nature) – These mishaps — which are by no means unique to anthrax — are worrying on two levels. First, the handling of dangerous pathogens within a controlled environment is one of the easier biological risks to contain. Much harder is ensuring that basic biological research that is known to be potentially dangerous, or that turns out to be so, is carried out safely. Second, it is only going to get harder to ensure the safe and secure use of organisms and their products — whether in basic research or in detecting and preventing the development of biological weapons.