Studying bioterrorism

When Georgetown University launches its Master of Science in Biohazardous Threat Agents and Emerging Infectious Diseases this fall, it will be the second such degree-granting program in the Washington, DC, area to capitalize on the region's multiple research institutions, such as the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick and the National Institutes of Health.Georgetown joins George Mason University, 40 miles south of Washington, DC, in Manassas, Va., which runs the Biodefense Degree Program. Led by Ken Alibek, executive director of George Mason's National Center for Biodefense, the program started last year with 90 master's and PhD students and has already grown to more than 200.Georgetown's program, which consists of 30 credit hours over two semesters, will include courses on biosurveillance, the microbiology of infectious agents, and chemical threat agents. The program will partner with the Homeland Security Institute, a division of the defense contractor Analytical Services, which may train students and offer them paid internships, according to Lee Rosenthal, program director and Georgetown professor of microbiology and immunology.The program had its genesis less than a year after the September 11 attacks when Georgetown hosted a 1-day workshop on bioterrorism. This past spring the Georgetown University Medical Center offered an 8-week mini-medical school on biodefense and bioethics. Both events helped the faculty to formulate the ideas and curriculum for the new MS program. "These kinds of programs… are not all over the place," said Rosenthal. "There's a tremendous need for them, and we hope to be able to be a part of developing more of the baseline information about these agents."Ken Dretchen, Georgetown's director of pharmacology who helped develop the program's curriculum, expects to receive applications from individuals with a wide variety of educational backgrounds, including medicine, basic research, political science, and public policy. This year, he said, administrators anticipate the program will have five to ten students, but that number will increase in the future. Applicants will not undergo security screenings prior to acceptance into the program, Rosenthal and Dretchen told The Scientist. "I don't think it's an issue," Dretchen said. "Most of the things we're going to be talking about are things that are readily available in textbooks at the moment. We're not going to be talking about anything that's classified, so because of that, I don't see the need for it, honestly."D.A. Henderson, a former associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, agreed. "I would be appalled if it demanded that applicants to the program pass some sort of security screening," he told The Scientist. "One assumes that the students would not be receiving special security briefings using classified material, nor is there a need for such information."The program will equip graduates to pursue careers in a variety of areas, from government and industry to private consulting, Dretchen said. "Some will go to medical school; others will wind up in relatively good positions with defense contractors, or with some of the federal agencies, or with some of the pharmaceutical firms," he said. "I think we should train everybody for all potential venues."George Mason's Alibek said that his university's program is designed to teach more general principles in biotechnology, immunology, drug discovery and development, and other fields, so its graduates will be able "to think more broadly and deeper." Its curriculum consists of four tracks: medical defense, engineering defense, nonproliferation, and law enforcement/counterterrorism. "One of the differences with our program [and Georgetown's] is that we don't teach bioterrorism," he told The Scientist. "I'm not considering it's dangerous, but I would prefer to stay away from questionable subjects."Although the faculties from the two programs have expressed interest in a possible collaboration or joint course, definite plans have not yet been made, Alibek said. Rosenthal said Georgetown was considering offering a PhD, but not yet.Alibek, former director of the Soviet Union's biological weapons program, said that educating scientists about how to handle emergency response to biological and chemical attacks is vital right now. "The situation has changed: It's not the 20th century," he said. "It's the 21st century."Henderson, now a senior adviser at the Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, agreed that programs of this type are needed. "[T]here is sufficient substance and intellectual challenge to warrant offering an MS degree in the field," he wrote in an E-mail, "and there are both challenges and positions aplenty crying for individuals with an advanced level of mastery in relevant subjects."

Studying bioterrorism

Georgetown to offer master's in biohazards and infectious diseases

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