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The term 'weapons of mass destruction' seems destined to be one of those rare pieces of jargon that insinuates itself into common usage. The reason for this dubious honour is, of course, that the deployment of such weapons, particularly agents of bioterror, has rarely seemed as possible as it does today. For the same reason, the question of biodefence — defence against agents of bioterror — is high on the agendas of governments, the public and the research community.
In a landmark forward-looking review, Claire Fraser examines the genomics-based approach to biodefence in January's issue of Nature Reviews Genetics. As the review highlights, the work that has already been done is impressive, the most notable achievement being the sequencing of the genomes of all the major human pathogens. Given that the demands of the new biodefence research agenda are such that the pressure to produce results that are immediately applicable is immense, Claire Fraser reminds us that pursuing a research focus that is too narrow could actually be harmful to the ultimate goal of developing an effective biodefence strategy.
In this Web Focus to accompany Claire Fraser's article, we have collected other related recent content from Nature Reviews Genetics, and a wide variety of relevant articles that have appeared in other journals from the Nature Publishing Group (NPG). Particularly fascinating for those who are interested in the developmental anatomy of the global response to 9/11 and subsequent events, is the chronological collection of NPG News stories starting from the end of 2001.
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