Biosafety
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As director of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and the principal investigator of the Galveston National Laboratory, Dr. Stanley M. Lemon fights a daily battle against the potential ravages of bioterrorism and of Mother Nature. He and his colleagues study emerging infectious diseases that, whether they occur naturally or via microbes that can be altered and used by terrorists, could have profound human and economic consequences. "Fortunately," Dr. Lemon says, "in addressing the natural diseases you also address bioterrorism."
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It's not often that an academic figure holds a place in pop culture, but Dr. C. J. Peters, professor of pathology and of microbiology and immunology, and biodefense director of the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, has turned that trick. In 1989, when he was head of the Special Pathogens Branch of the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Peters led a team sent to a laboratory in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Reston, Virginia, to contain an Ebola outbreak among experimental monkeys. Their success in preventing the deadly virus from escaping the lab was documented in Richard Preston's 1994 bestseller The Hot Zone. That book inspired the hit movie Outbreak (1995), which was so heavily fictionalized that Peters still can't figure out whether he's supposed to be the Rene Russo or the Dustin Hoffman character.
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Stan's not what you'd call good looking, nor is he articulate, and his wardrobe can be downright shabby. But he's seen and had it all — voluntarily — from minor cuts and bruises to strokes to lung cancer to Ebola. He takes it all lying down, and he never complains. In his own modest way, he's one of the best teachers medical students have ever had, even though he's a bit of a dummy.
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