The Culture of Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Responsible Conduct in the Life Sciences: A Comprehensive Literature Review.

Introduction: Managing biological risks requires an organizational culture that holistically ensures the biosafety, biosecurity, and biocontainment of infectious disease agents and toxins, in addition to conducting science in a responsible manner, complying with relevant laws, regulations, guidelines, and policies, as well as emphasizing norms, values, and beliefs of the entire life sciences profession.

Methods: Drawing upon the Federal Experts Security Advisory Panel's (FESAP's) 2014 recommendation to "strengthen a culture that emphasizes biosafety, laboratory biosecurity, and responsible conduct in the life sciences," we undertook a comprehensive literature review of the culture of biosafety, biosecurity, and responsible conduct in the life sciences, including metrics by which to evaluate interventions at the organizational level.

Results: We identified 4031 unique citations published from January 2001 to January 2017 by searching the MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Global Health databases.

Evolution of different dual-use concepts in international and national law and its implications on research ethics and governance.

This paper provides an overview of the various dual-use concepts applied in national and international non-proliferation and anti-terrorism legislation, such as the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, the Chemical Weapons Convention and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540, and national export control legislation and in relevant codes of conduct. While there is a vast literature covering dual-use concepts in particular with regard to life sciences, this is the first paper that incorporates into such discussion the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540. In addition, recent developments such as the extension of dual-use export control legislation in the area of human rights protection are also identified and reviewed.

Biosafety, biosecurity and internationally mandated regulatory regimes: compliance mechanisms for education and global health security.

This paper highlights the biosafety and biosecurity training obligations that three international regulatory regimes place upon states parties. The duty to report upon the existence of such provisions as evidence of compliance is discussed in relation to each regime. We argue that such mechanisms can be regarded as building blocks for the development and delivery of complementary biosafety and biosecurity teaching and training materials.

Biosafety and biosecurity as essential pillars of international health security and cross-cutting elements of biological nonproliferation.

The critical aspects of biosafety, biosecurity, and biocontainment have been in the spotlight in recent years. There have also been increased international efforts to improve awareness of modern practices and concerns with regard to the safe pursuit of life sciences research, and to optimize current oversight frameworks, thereby resulting in decreased risk of terrorist/malevolent acquisition of deadly pathogens or accidental release of a biological agent, and increased safety of laboratory workers. Our purpose is to highlight how the World Health Organization's (WHO) revised International Health Regulations (IHR[2005]), the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), and the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1540 overlap in their requirements with regard to biosafety and biosecurity in order to improve the understanding of practitioners and policymakers and maximize the use of national resources employed to comply with internationally-mandated requirements.

Protecting the health of U.S. military forces in Romania: endemic disease threat considerations.

In 2005 the United States and Romania signed a historic access agreement establishing the first U.S. military bases in the former Soviet bloc country of Romania.

Mupirocin resistance screening of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates at Madigan Army Medical Center.

Mupirocin is an antibiotic used for eradication and infection control of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Mupirocin binds to the bacterial isoleucyl tRNA synthetase, thus disrupting bacterial protein synthesis. Four hundred nine MRSA clinical isolates collected in 2006 and 2007 at Madigan Army Medical Center were screened for mupirocin resistance by E test and polymerase chain reaction; 7 MRSA isolates (1.

Genital co-infection with herpes simplex viruses type 1 and 2: comparison of real-time PCR assay and traditional viral isolation methods.

We report the clinical case of a genital outbreak with both Herpes Simplex Type 1 (HSV-1) and Herpes Simplex Type 2 (HSV-2) during pregnancy. Herpes was presumptively identified by clinical presentation of lesion and Tzanck smear while serotypes were identified by cell culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This case report highlights the need for increased surveillance of both serotypes in genital infection of pregnant women for effective disease management and reduced risk of transmission.

Virus signaling and apoptosis in the central nervous system infection.

Viruses target the central nervous system (CNS) incidentally, due to complications of systemic infection, or specifically, by ascending via the axons of peripheral and cranial nerves. In the CNS, viruses cause acute disease (viz. encephalitis), latent infections or neurodegenerative pathology.

Herpes simplex virus type 1-induced encephalitis has an apoptotic component associated with activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase.

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) triggered apoptosis in hippocampal cultures, as determined by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) and immunohistochemistry with antibody specific for the large fragment of activated caspase 3. The levels of phosphorylated (activated) c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) were also increased in HSV-1-infected hippocampal cultures as were the levels of activated c-Jun, its target. JNK activation was involved in HSV-1-induced apoptosis as evidenced by apoptosis inhibition with the JNK inhibitor SP600125.

Targeting apoptosis in neurological disease using the herpes simplex virus.

Herpes Simplex Viruses type 1 (HSV-1) and 2 (HSV-2) cause central nervous system (CNS) disease ranging from benign aseptic meningitis to fatal encephalitis. In adults, CNS infection with HSV-2 is most often associated with aseptic meningitis while HSV-1 frequently produces severe, focal encephalitis associated with high mortality and morbidity. Recent studies suggested that the distinct neurological outcome of CNS infection with the two viruses may be due to their distinct modulation of apoptotic cell death: HSV-1 triggers neuronal apoptosis, while HSV-2 is neuroprotective.

Expression of herpes simplex virus type 2 protein ICP10 PK rescues neurons from apoptosis due to serum deprivation or genetic defects.

Previous studies have shown that the herpes simplex virus type 2 protein kinase ICP10 PK activates the Ras/MEK/MAPK pathway in nonneuronal cells. Here we report that ectopically expressed ICP10 PK has anti-apoptotic activity in various paradigms of neuronal cell death. Neuronally differentiated PC12 cells and primary murine hippocampal cultures transfected with an expression vector for ICP10 PK were protected from cell death resulting from growth factor withdrawal.