Biosecurity Board Meets

In the online publication of the magazine, Reason, Ronald Bailey, covers the initial meeting of the National Scientific Advisory Board for Biosecurity. The article gives a good overview of the biological threats that can be discussed in an open session and some of the issues that lie between the open pursuit of scientific investigation and national security. See NBE, June 30, 2005, for a list of the members of the group.

Daniel Seckinger, former president of the College of American Pathologists, testified this week in front of the US Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, the advisory group that will issue recommendations on which defense bases will get the budgetary axe. Seckinger was advocating for saving the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, which employs 820 people, including over 120 pathologists and other scientists. The AFIP is one of only a few facilities in United States with the ability to deal with a bioterrorist attack through rapid diagnosis and the ability to manage an epidemic, Seckinger said in a statement. AFIP is the world's largest tissue and tumor specimen repository.

Business Week's Justin Hibbard this week interviewed Vivek Paul, who surprisingly left his post as CEO of India's Wipro Technologies at the end of June to take a position with the private equity firm Texas Pacific Group. Paul told Hibbard that “he isn't going to be the India guy” at TPG. He will instead work from Silicon Valley and seek deals in bio. Paul previously was CEO of the joint venture between Wipro and General Electric Medical Systems.