Researchers publish scientific paper on 2001 anthrax attacks
Researchers at the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and collaborators at the FBI, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and Northern Arizona University have published the first scientific paper based on their investigation into the anthrax attacks of 2001. The case was groundbreaking in its use of genomics and microbiology in a criminal investigation. More than 20 people contracted anthrax from Bacillus anthracis spores mailed through the U.S. Postal Service in 2001, and five people died as a result of the attacks. Research scientists from the Institute for Genome Sciences played a key role in the investigation known as Amerithrax. The work is a pioneering advance in the new field known as microbial forensics, a science that would likely play a key role in the investigations of any future bioterror attacks. The paper was published online today in the Proceedings...