Biosecurity

Developing Countermeasures for Bio-Terror Weapons

RR: How much has your work increased over the last five, ten years? How much has your work become more of a necessity over that time?

KB: Well my work has really increased because of our designation at the University of Nebraska as a UARC, a university affiliated research center. That has brought us a lot of D.O.D. contracts, a lot of interest in developing our capabilities in bio-defense research. Personally, I got into the business of bacterial pathogens and looking for countermeasures to staph infections. I’ve been into that for a long time and. It was an easy transition for me to go from development of staph vaccines to the development of vaccines against things like anthrax which is what my project is now.
RR: Is there any one vaccine that’s more of a priority than another because there’s more of a threat from one biological source than another?