Preparing for bioterrorism and the next pandemic

• Link to: Northwestern Now Story

EVANSTON, Ill. — The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of assessing vulnerabilities in our physical homes, schools and workspaces. Microbes, pathogens, and even radioactive elements can slip inside at any time, remaining unnoticed until a person falls ill.

To help ensure that U.S. buildings can withstand bioterrorism, pandemics and tragic accidents, Northwestern University — along with Idaho National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) — has organized the Built Environment Surveillance Testbed (BEST) summits. 

Through these events, experts assess requirements for creating a national test and evaluation process to investigate building vulnerabilities and ultimately mitigate radiological and biological risks to indoor spaces. 

Dedicated to probing biological risks and hazards, the next summit will take place on Monday, June 12. BEST-Bio will explore preparedness for bioterrorism and infectious disease transmission. Hosted by Idaho National Laboratory and DHS S&T, the daylong virtual event is free and open to U.S. citizens and U.S. media. Participants can register here to receive a unique access link.

Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, will deliver the keynote speech. Other speakers include experts on biodefense, emergency preparedness, environmental health and threat reduction.

BEST-Bio follows BEST-Rad, an April 25 summit designed to explore radiological risks to the built environment. Both summits were co-organized by Northwestern’s Aaron Packman and Erica Hartmann. Packman will co-moderate a session focused on the landscape of biological testing and evaluation. 

An expert in waterborne disease transmission and water-based epidemiology, Packman is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and director of Northwestern’s Center for Water Research. An indoor microbiologist, Hartmann is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at McCormick. 

“A wide range of technologies were developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as techniques for monitoring pathogens in building air and water systems as well as methods to improve building ventilation, air filters and surface disinfection to reduce transmission risks,” Packman said. “Now we need the ability to assess the performance of these technologies.”

“When we think of ‘weapons of mass destruction,’ we typically think of giant bombs,” Hartmann said. “But actually, many risks are diffuse and spread not through cataclysmic events in outdoor environments but through many tiny events in indoor environments.

“At this point, we have experienced enough of the COVID-19 pandemic to recognize that our buildings are not fortresses. And while there have been a lot of exciting developments in technology to protect us from these threats, there’s a gap between the basic research that creates the solutions and the full building implementation scale. These summits are critical for learning how to close that gap and how best to leverage resources available through the military and national labs.”