Too much secrecy in biosafety oversight, report finds
Less than five percent of committees responsible for oversight of potentially dangerous scientific research provide an “adequate” level of public oversight, according to a new survey.
Performed by the Sunshine Project, an independent group opposed to weapons proliferation, the study looked at compliance with information requests by 439 institutional biosafety committees at universities, institutes and companies. Under federal regulations, groups receiving federal research grants from the National Institutes of Health must maintain an IBC and make their records available to the public.
Though originally created to address ethical concerns associated with recombinant DNA research, earlier reforms in 2004 have delegated to the committees the responsibility to monitor “dual-use” projects — projects that, if used by hostile groups, could threaten national security.
Avanir Pharmaceuticals and four other San Diego companies failed to maintain an institutional committee, despite government funding for grants that included the keyword “bioterrorism” and involved recombinant DNA.
Though regulations require the committees to include independent community representatives, “unaffiliated” IBC members at UC Davis include a biosafety officer from UC Berkeley and an employee of a local biotechnology company, the Sunshine Project found.
While most UC campuses have committees that “appear to operate, which is more than can be said of some state university systems,” the university was “heavy-handed and inconsistent” in editing out potentially proprietary information in response to the group’s request, the report stated.
“Some UC minutes so frequently refer to other documents that the committee’s activities are obscured, greatly lessening the minutes’ value,” the group stated in the report.
The study also charged the University of Texas Southwester with “the most blatant evasion of public accountability” for creating fake committees to hide IBC documenation.
Presidential candidates favor financial aid reform
President George W. Bush, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Ralph Nader said they supported at least partial reform of the law that currently excludes students convicted of drug possession from receiving federal financial aid.
In response to questions compiled by the New Voters Project, Kerry said he did not believe that past nonviolent drug convictions should prevent students from applying for student aid.
“Education is perhaps the best way for someone who has been involved with drugs or crime to turn their life around,” Kerry said.
Bush, too, said he supported partial reform, pointing to his 2005 budget request made to Congress that called on lawmakers to change the law and not target students for old violations.
However, Nader criticized the promises of a partial “fix,” which he said would fail “to address the fundamental problems with the law.” Instead, he called for a full repeal of “this misguided law.”
The question followed criticism from Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), the author of the original exclusion, who has complained that the Department of Education has interpreted his law too broadly.
Civilian pilot killed in Miramar air show crash
Sean DeRosier, the civilian pilot of a custom-built “Cabo Wabo SkyRocker” aircraft, was killed after he crashed while performing scheduled aerobatics maneuvers at the 2004 Miramar Air Show.
In a release, the Marine Corps station said that the crash, which occurred at approximately 10:15 a.m. on Oct. 15, was under investigation. The crash caused no injuries on the ground.
Though officials immediately suspended the air show after the crash, they restored flight operations approximately two hours later.
Professor wins Packard Foundation fellowship
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has named assistant professor Trey Ideker, from UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering, as one of 16 recipients of its 2004 Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering.
He will receive $625,000 in unrestricted research grants over a five-year period.
As a researcher in the relatively new field of systems biology, which attempts to model cellular behavior as a complex network of interacting genes, proteins and other components, Ideker is working on a computational model to explain diseases like cancer and develop techniques for earlier diagnosis and better treatment methods.
Established in 1988, the fellowship program attempts to support “unusually creative” university researchers, according to a foundation statement.
