Browse Items · Collection of Biothreat Risk Assessments (COBRA)

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

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

Innovation, Dual Use, and Security: Managing the Risks of Emerging Biological and Chemical Technologies

Aimed to develop a tool to assess the risk that individual emerging technologies might be misused for hostile purposes and to develop tailored governance strategies.

Tags: Countermeasures, Production, Risk Assessment, Terrorist Use

Interim Report on Methodological Improvements to the Department of Homeland Security's Biological Agent Risk Analysis

The National Research Council evaluated the utility and soundness of the risk assessment process of DHS. In doing so, the evaluation provided information on how the process works, and the factors considered.

Tags: Risk Assessment

Emerging Technology and Risk Analysis: Synthetic Pandemics.

Assessed whether engineering pathogens capable of "sustained, human-to-human transmission and causing mortality and morbidity" is possible/probable. Also considers how such pathogens would compare to naturally emergent pathogens in these regards, the…

Tags: Availability, Controllability, Countermeasures, Detection, Dissemination, Economic Consequences, Genetic Modification, Genetic Variation, Incubation, Infectivity, Morbidity, Mortality, Novelty, Production, Risk Assessment, Stability, Terrorist Use, Transmissibility

The Development and Use of Decision Support Framework for Informing Selection of Select Agent Toxins with Modelling Studies To Inform Permissible Toxin Amounts

2022 The Development and Use of Decision Support Framework for Informing Selection of Select Agent Toxins with Modelling Studies To Inform Permissible Toxin Amounts.pdf

This paper developed and applied decision support framework (DSF) approaches to assess toxins for inclusion on the select agents list and developed attack scenarios to determine the amount of toxin required to impact public health in order to…

Tags: Countermeasures, Dissemination, Historical Weaponization Interest, Morbidity, Mortality, Production, Public Health, Risk Assessment, Stability

Medical Aspects of Biological Warfare

This is the third edition of Medical Aspects of Biological Warfare and aims to highlight the current state of science on individual agents and toxins and general response capabilities to prevent knowledge gaps and serve as a reference source for the…