Senator Jay Rockefeller and Senator Bill Frist invite you to join them for a discussion of technology & biodefense.    Written Transcript of the session

Featured Speakers:

Tara O'Toole, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense-a physician and public health professional, she has made the Center for Civilian Biodefense a scientific leader in guarding against biological attacks.

Alan Zelicoff, Senior Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories-a physician and physicist, he is an expert on counter terrorism and biological defense, and a forceful advocate of new systems to track disease outbreaks.

Jane Alexander, Deputy Director of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-an accomplished technologist with extensive expertise in both physics and biology, she directs a broad portfolio of biodefense technology development projects.

The threat of bioterrorism has become much more real for Americans with the spate of anthrax attacks last fall. That experience demonstrates our lack of preparedness to deal with sophisticated attacks involving engineered biological weapons.

In our Tech Forum briefing last November, we addressed the issue of an inadequate public health infrastructure. Our discussion this time will focus on the challenges we face in defending against biological attack and some of the technology options available to detect, track, and respond to possible bioterror threats. Our need for new biodefense technology ranges from sensors, monitoring systems and software, and diagnostic tools, to new approaches to vaccine and drug development.