This document offers a summary of the substantive presentations during an international workshop, Trends in Science and Technology Relevant to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, held 31 October – 3 November, 2010 at the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is meant to provide scientists and other technical experts with factual information about the range and variety of topics discussed at the workshop, which may be of interest to national governments and non-governmental organizations as they begin to prepare for the 7th Review Conference of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) in 2011.

Contents

• The National Academies
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Summary
  • INTRODUCTION
  • INTRODUCTION TO THE THEMES, GOALS, AND CONTEXT OF THE WORKSHOP
    • Outline of the Aims and Objectives of the Meeting – Roderick Flower, Queen Mary University of London, UK
    • The Biological Weapons Convention: A Brief Overview – Piers Millett, BWC Implementation Support Unit, United Nations
    • Framework for Evaluating New Science and Technology – Ralf Trapp, CBW Consultant, France
    • Perspective from the Chinese Academy of Sciences – Li Huang, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Discussion
  • DEVELOPMENTS IN DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND PRODUCTION
    • Bioinformatics and Computational Tools – Etienne de Villiers, International Livestock Research Institute, Kenya
    • Systems Biology – Andrew Pitt, University of Glasgow, UK
    • Emerging Trends in Synthetic Biology – Pawan K. Dhar, University of Kerala, India
    • Discussion
  • DEVELOPMENTS IN DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND PRODUCTION, CONTINUED
    • Bioreactors and Transgenic Animals – Ryszard Słomski, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland
    • Transgenic Plants and Recombinant Pharmaceuticals – Julian Ma, St. Georges University of London, UK
    • Neuroscience Developments – James Eberwine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, USA
    • Discussion
  • DISPERSAL AND DELIVERY
    • Aerosols and Aerobiology – Chad Roy, Tulane National Primate Research Center, USA
    • Nanostructured Delivery Systems for Drugs, Proteins and Cells – Jackie Ying, Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Singapore
    • Remarks: Implications Stemming From Advances in Dual-Use Targeted Delivery Systems – Kathryn Nixdorff, Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany
    • Discussion
  • DETECTION, IDENTIFICATION, AND MONITORING
    • Postgenomic Technologies – Andrew Pitt, University of Glasgow, UK
    • Bioforensics – Randall Murch, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA
    • Trends in Biosensors – Gary Resnick, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA
    • Biosensor Development – Ilya Kurochkin, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
    • Remarks: Science Used in Identifying the Anthrax Mailings – Nancy Connell, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, USA
    • Discussion
  • DEFENSE AND COUNTERMEASURES
    • Vaccines and Medical Countermeasures – Nancy Connell, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, USA
    • Monitoring and Molecular Diagnosis of Emerging Infections – Raymond Lin, National Public Health Laboratory, Singapore
    • Agricultural Biosecurity: Threats to Crop Production – Michael Jeger, Imperial College London, UK
    • Discussion
  • COMMUNICATION
    • How the Internet has Changed Scientific Interchanges – James Meadway, The Royal Society, UK
    • Influence of Technology on Scientific Collaboration – Herawati Sudoyo, Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, Indonesia
    • Conveying the Concept of Risk – Terence Taylor, International Council for the Life Sciences
    • Discussion
  • WORKSHOP DISCUSSION SESSIONS AND FINAL REMARKS
• REFERENCES
• APPENDIX

Rapporteurs: Katherine Bowman, Kathryn Hughes, Jo L. Husbands, James Revill and Benjamin Rusek

This project was supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, IAP - The Global Network of Science Academies, U.K. Global Partnership Programme, U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, U.S. Department of State, U.S. National Institutes of Health, and U.S. National Academies.

NOTICE: The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project. The project that is the subject of this summary was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.