Projects / Past Projects

Impact of US regulations on microbiological research in Germany – A 2004 survey

Project Period: 2004
Project officer: Jan van Aken, Stefan Johannsen

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent anthrax letter attacks in the USA, a number of regulations were put into force in the USA and elsewhere, that tightened control over pathogenic micro-organisms and laboratory equipment.

There has been increasing anecdotal evidence that these regulations have led to problems, in particular with access to culture collections and micro-organisms in general. In order to quantify the impact of the new regulations, we conducted a survey in spring 2004. We sent questionnaires to all German academic medical and veterinary institutions that are, according to their websites, working in the area of microbiology.

The survey revealed that US regulations are having an adverse impact on German microbiological research.

Publications

• van Aken J, Johannsen S, Kollek R (2004) Biosecurity requires international supervision. Nature 431:17 (Communications). (pdf)


• van Aken J, Johannsen S, Kollek R (2004) Bioterrorismus-Angst und mikrobiologische Forschung in Deutschland. Deutsches Ärzteblatt. (pdf) (in German)