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Science 26 September 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5641, pp. 1852 - 1853
DOI: 10.1126/science.1090083
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Policy Forum

PUBLIC HEALTH:
Building Microbial Forensics as a Response to Bioterrorism

Bruce Budowle,1* Steven E. Schutzer,2 Anja Einseln,1 Lynda C. Kelley,3 Anne C. Walsh,4 Jenifer A. L. Smith,1 Babetta L. Marrone,5 James Robertson,1 Joseph Campos6

Combating bioterrorism is a challenge to all of us. To be proactive, the U.S. Government has formalized the discipline of "microbial forensics" to deter and attribute perpetrators of such acts. This Policy Forum describes the foundations of the microbial forensics program: the creation of a national bioforensics laboratory, a partnership laboratory network, and a peer-consensus scientific working group and the promulgation of quality assurance guidelines.

1Federal Bureau of Investigation, Laboratory Division, Quantico, VA 22135, USA. 2University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, Department of Medicine, Newark, NJ 07103, USA. 3Russell Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Athens, GA 30604, USA. 4Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Albany, NY 12201-0509, USA. 5Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA. 6Department of Laboratory Medicine, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC 20010, USA.

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bbudowle{at}fbi.gov.

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