Collaborations Key to Protection from Biological Agents,
CIMIT Expert Says

Cambridge, MA - April 14, 2003 - With biologic weapons creating a climate for the threat of mass casualties, physicians working with the Department of Defense are creating and testing devices to detect airborne pathogens. According to Michael Callahan, MD, "The real threat may not be in high tech nuclear weapons, but rather in the devices made in countries with minimal technology." The Biodefense Team at CIMIT is working collaboratively to develop sensors and diagnostics for early detection of biologi-cal warfare agents that are safe, accurate, affordable, and do not produce a high rate of false alarms."There is a difference between engineers creating detectors in isolation versus engineers creating them with physicians and disaster response agencies," said Dr. Callahan. leader. A National Disaster Command Physician, he is boarded in internal med-icine, tropical medicine, and infectious diseases and has extensive international disaster experience, including the Bhuj-Ghujarat earthquake, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the September 11th World Trade Center terrorist attacks. Dr. Callahan has been involved in develop-ing disaster response plans for mass casualty biological weapons incidents since 1997. At CIMIT his team is design-ing biological weapon detection tech-nologies appropriate to protect military and civilian populations. He has clinical experience treating anthrax and plague and has modeled biological weapons technologies in six countries of concern to the United States Government.