American Type Culture Collection Release: Biodefense Expert Summit Sets Stage For Standards Development

WASHINGTON, April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Some of the world's leading biodefense research and development leaders took a major step today toward establishing consensus standards for biodefense-related materials and processes during an exclusive summit convened by ATCC.

The distinguished group of experts established a foundation for future biodefense standards by cultivating agreement on a set of key questions and issues that will need to be addressed as the biodefense community develops standards.

The ATCC Expert Panel on the Development of Standards for Biodefense brought together academic, industry and government stakeholders from across the country to address the glaring need for standards in the biodefense community.

"Establishing standards brings validity to research efforts, and is absolutely critical for sustained research progress and accelerated product development in biodefense," said meeting chair Joseph Perrone, VP for Standards and Certification at ATCC. "The depth and breadth of experience and expertise brought to bear by the panelists and attendees at the conference bode well for our ultimate goal of filling the gap that now exists in the area of standards for biodefense."

Meeting attendees discussed those key biological materials, reagents and handling protocols that, if standardized, would have the most profound impact on biodefense research and product development. Biodefense standards are necessary to assure adherence to industry guidelines, maintain R&D best practices and promote public safety.

"This meeting had profound importance to the effort toward biodefense standards because it provided a common launching point and to a large extent mapped the way forward for members of the various stakeholder communities," Perrone asserted, adding, "Discussion during this meeting went a long way toward determining how standards should be developed for organizations involved in the development, authentication, storage, handling and transfer of materials used in biodefense R&D."

The future path toward comprehensive biodefense standards will involve additional meetings that incorporate a wider group of stakeholders. Once the key issues have been parsed out, voluntary consensus standards will be written for use in the biodefense industry and research community.

About ATCC

Since 1925, the mission of ATCC, also known as American Type Culture Collection, has been to acquire, authenticate, preserve, develop, and distribute biological materials, information, technology, intellectual property, and standards for the advancement, validation, and application of scientific knowledge. Visit us online at: http://www.atcc.org.

ATCC

CONTACT: Scott Jenkins of ATCC, +1-703-365-2879; or Leslie Valenza,+1-202-973-1320, for ATCC

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