Abstract
Throughout the past few years, the world has experienced an emergence of serious biological threats. From SARS and mad cow disease to H5N1 avian flu, anthrax, and more recently, salmonella, these threats have made headlines and then demanded action. To stem such crises, public and private entities alike respond by developing new ways to prepare for “the next time”—new regulations, new tools, new software, and new methods of detection, all to help manage and reduce biological risk. This special issue of JALA showcases some of the technological work being done to prepare for these and other pathogenic threats, whether they come from natural causes, accident, negligence, or intentional exposure.
The World Health Organization has a simple graphic that succinctly defines biosafety as “working safely,” and laboratory biosecurity as “keeping the working secure.” The U.S. Center for Disease Control uses the term biosecurity similarly in an online training video. In this sense, biosecurity is about the stewardship of biological agents.
The term biosecurity also reaches beyond classic laboratory environments. In 2001, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture published “The Animal Health Safeguarding Review: Results and Recommendations,” which states that “the primary goal of biosecurity is to protect against the risk posed by disease and organisms; the primary tools of biosecurity are exclusion, eradication, and control, supported by expert system management, practical protocols, and the rapid and efficient securing and sharing of vital information. Biosecurity is therefore the sum of risk management practices in defense against biological threats” [my emphasis].
This wide charter defines a subject that is not easily compartmentalized—a bio-terrorism attack could threaten food safety, and an accidental laboratory release of a lethal pathogen could become a risk to our national security. One goal of this special issue of JALA is to represent this interdisciplinary subject by sharing news from a range of authors with a breadth of experience, including those who work outside of traditional laboratories in broader arenas of biosecurity and biosafety as well as those who work directly with biosafety and biosecurity technologies.
This special issue also marks another milestone for ALA. As the first special issue devoted exclusively to the art and science of laboratory automation for biosafety and biosecurity, it illustrates how a lot of the same scientific techniques and technologies that are successfully embraced by one particular group of ALA members can translate and apply to laboratories that serve other seemingly disparate industries, such as drug discovery and development, food and agriculture, energy and petrochemicals.
Many e-mails from where I started, I can say that coordinating this special issue of JALA has been a privilege and distinct pleasure. My thanks to all involved, especially the authors, manuscript reviewers, and ALA's JALA team.
Sincerely,
