Browse Items · Collection of Biothreat Risk Assessments (COBRA)

Biosecurity: Understanding, Assessing and Preventing the Threat

These chapters discuss how to understand the behavior leading up to a biological attack or theft of biological material. They also discuss biosafety and the threat posed by dual use technology.

Tags: Availability, Countermeasures, Detection, Risk Assessment, Terrorist Use

Development of a Comparative Risk Ranking System for Agents Posing a Bioterrorism Threat to Human or Animal Populations

Developed a comparative ranking system of high-risk biological agents.

Tags: Availability, Civil Disruption, Countermeasures, Detection, Dissemination, Economic Consequences, Environmental Persistence, Historical Weaponization Interest, Morbidity, Mortality, Production, Stability

Tempering the Risk: Rift Valley Fever

This article assesses the risk of Rift Valley Fever being used as a bioweapon and weighs it against the burden placed on research by its addition to the select agents list.

Tags: Countermeasures, Economic Consequences, Genetic Modification, Morbidity, Mortality, Production, Terrorist Use, Transmissibility

Potential Risks and Benefits of Gain-of-Function Research

This report summarizes a public symposium ran by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine which discussed the potential benefits and risks of gain-of-function research.

Tags: Availability, Countermeasures, Genetic Modification, Genetic Variation, Infectivity, Mortality, Novelty, Terrorist Use, Transmissibility

Global Catastrophic Biological Risks: Toward a Working Definition

This paper seeks to define criteria for a Global Catastrophic Biological Risk, or GCBR, which was previously defined as an event with the potential to produce tens to hundreds of millions of fatalities, alter the long term trajectory of humanity, or…

Tags: Civil Disruption, Economic Consequences, Genetic Modification, Mortality, Novelty

The De Novo Synthesis of Horsepox Virus: Implications for Biosecurity and Recommendations for Preventing the Reemergence of Smallpox

Discusses the potential dual-use threat arising from the synthesis of the first ever orthopox virus.

Tags: Availability, Countermeasures, Detection, Genetic Modification, Military Use, Population Susceptibility, Production, Public Health, Terrorist Use, Transmissibility

Beyond the Dirty Dozen: A Proposed Methodology for Assessing Future Bioweapons Threats

Looks at bioweaponry in the context of state-sponsored warfare. Created a scoring matrix to evaluate weaponization potential where agents were ranked from 0-3 across 12 risk attributes by NATO biodefense experts.

Tags: Controllability, Countermeasures, Detection, Dissemination, Incubation, Infectivity, Morbidity, Mortality, Production, Stability, Transmissibility

Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology

Focuses on synthetic biology advancement presenting the potential for being coopted into development of bioweapons.

Tags: Availability, Countermeasures, Dissemination, Genetic Modification, Military Use, Morbidity, Mortality, Production, Terrorist Use

Handbook on Biological Warfare Preparedness

Introduces the basics of biological warfare agent history, biology, and preparedness. Places particular focus on detection technologies.

Defense Against Biological Attacks Vol I

Volume I discusses genetic modification technologies and their risk for dual use. Chapters 10, 11, and 12 are covered.

Tags: Countermeasures, Detection, Genetic Modification, Historical Weaponization Interest, Morbidity, Mortality, Population Susceptibility, Production

Defense Against Biological Attacks Vol II

Volume II provides high-level overviews of the biological agents that are most commonly associated with biodefense activities. Additional chapters present the status quo of antibacterial and antiviral therapy and diagnostic development.

Tags: Civil Disruption, Controllability, Countermeasures, Decontamination, Detection, Dissemination, Economic Consequences, Genetic Modification, Genetic Variation, Historical Weaponization Interest, Incubation, Infectivity, Morbidity, Mortality, Production, Stability, Terrorist Use

Next-Generation Biowarfare: Small in Scale, Sensational in Nature?

This report evaluates the changing nature of biological attacks.

Tags: Civil Disruption, Countermeasures, Detection, Economic Consequences, Historical Weaponization Interest, Military Use, Mortality, Terrorist Use, Transmissibility

Genome Editing and Biological Weapons

Assesses the risk of recent advances in genome editing technologies to enabling development of biological weapons.

Tags: Availability, Controllability, Countermeasures, Detection, Dissemination, Economic Consequences, Environmental Persistence, Genetic Modification, Historical Weaponization Interest, Infectivity, Military Use, Morbidity, Mortality, Population Susceptibility, Risk Assessment, Stability, Terrorist Use, Transmissibility

Classification of Etiologic Agents on the Basis of Hazard

Provided a basis for stratification of agents into classes based on their risks and requisite biosafety protocols for working with each of these classes. This then allowed determination of the types of measures appropriate for each risk level/agent.

Tags: Controllability, Transmissibility

Browse Items (254 total)