Biosecurity. New biosecurity rules to target the riskiest pathogens.

Ever since the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) implicated U.S. Army researcher Bruce Ivins in the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, U.S. scientists have been nervously anticipating tighter regulations for research involving dangerous pathogens and toxins. But an executive order issued by President Barack Obama earlier this month indicates that the regulations on these so-called select agents may actually end up more streamlined and less burdensome. The 2 July order from the White House says that the government will put the most dangerous of the 82 items currently on the select-agent list into a high-risk category and consider reducing the number of agents on the overall list. The high-risk category, Tier 1, would potentially be subject to tougher security standards than before, including greater physical security and more rigorous screening of researchers. The remaining select agents could require lesser security measures than now. The government will also harmonize rules across funding agencies. The move is “the result of an effort to strike a balance between security and science,” says Peter Emanuel, who helped draft the order as assistant director of chemical and biological countermeasures at the White House Offi ce of Science and Technology Policy. “The order is consistent with what the scientifi c community has been calling for all along,” says Kavita Berger of the AAAS Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy. The two departments responsible for oversight of the select-agent program—Health and Human Services and Agriculture—will decide over the next 18 months which items end up in Tier 1. “Right now, for something to be considered a select agent, its impact on public health is the primary determinant,” says Emanuel. Several additional factors will now be taken into account, he says, such as the ease with which an agent could be turned into a weapon, how quickly medical counter measures could be implemented, and available intelligence on whether terrorist organizations might be actively pursuing that particular pathogen or toxin. For example, the lack of effective countermeasures against the Marburg virus would make it a higher security risk than unmodifi ed anthrax, for which vaccines and treatments are available, according to a government report that helped inform the executive order. As for enhancing physical security for Tier 1 agents, “many labs already have very New Biosecurity Rules to Target The Riskiest Pathogens B I O S E C U R I T Y