Conference Objective

Conference Flyer

Conference Prospectus

Conference Invitation

Life science and biotechnology advances have transformed our everyday life, society, and by extension, biodefense strategy. Global changes in political and technical aspects raise both new challenges and opportunities for countering biological threats. Now is the time to rethink the challenge of biothreat prevention, and to look for sustainable multi-purpose solutions to address the growing threat of infectious diseases. Building upon successful cooperative threat reduction approaches and extensive international collaborations, in genomics and other life science and technology advances, an effective global collaboration will enhance transparency, accelerate scientific discovery, and facilitate economic development for participating nations. Global infectious disease surveillance holds great promise as a tool to mitigate the risk of pandemics and remains an area of broad international interest. All nations have significant needs in addressing infectious diseases impacting human health and agriculture, and biological issues concerning bioenergy research and environment protection. Seeking to address these common challenges provides unique leveraging points for biothreat prevention and enhanced response.

LANL will partner with the US DOS and DOD to host a Science and Technology Enabled Global Biosurveillance Conference in January 2011, in Santa Fe, NM. Guided by the National Strategy for Countering Biological Threats and joined by major government stakeholders, the primary objective for this conference is to bring together the international technical community to discuss the scientific basis and technical approaches to an effective and sustainable Global Biosurveillance System and develop a research agenda enabling a long-term, sustainable capability.

Through the discussion, the conference aims to: