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.