42 Top U.S. Scientists and Specialists Explore Cutting-Edge Innovations to Defend America From Dangerous Zoonoti...( LANSDOWNE Va. Nov. 18 -- Forty-two l...),Health

LANSDOWNE, Va., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Forty-two leading U. S. scientists and specialists gathered at a November national forum to consider cutting-edge innovations that may defend America's public health and national economy from outbreaks of dangerous zoonotic diseases, the FAZD Center announced today.

Among those innovations:

• A "Doc in a Box" on every American kitchen table that detects highly contagious and dangerous zoonotic diseases in people before symptoms appear.
• Computer-generated "lab animals" that increase the speed and decrease the cost of developing vaccines to protect humans from dangerous zoonotic diseases.
• Software that rapidly analyzes complex data, then displays the results as easily understood graphs, thus freeing researchers to spend more time and resources on developing products to mitigate outbreaks of dangerous zoonotic diseases.

The Forum on Science and Biothreats, held in early November at the Lansdowne Resort, was sponsored by the FAZD Center (National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense), a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence.

Zoonotic diseases attack both humans and animals. The most dangerous of these diseases pose catastrophic risks to U.S. public health and to the nation's $1 trillion agricultural economy.

Speakers presented novel discoveries and techniques from a range of disciplines, including epidemiology, pathology, microbiology, wildlife ecology, mathematics and computer modeling. Specialists in zoonotic disease then responded with "outside the box" discussions on how these concepts may apply to detecting, mitigating and recovering from outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics.

"Discoveries and technologies emerging in any of these disciplines may offer potential breakthroughs for detec
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