SPADA Meeting Book

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Courtesy: DBPAO internal brief 156 Figure 3. Examples of the timeline for obtaining Ebola reference materials from Africa. A delay 157 in obtaining pathogen reference materials may hamper the discovery of signature erosion and the 158 follow-on development of new or ‘old and improved’ detection assays, thereby delaying an 159 effective assay from reaching the field in a timely manner. ID- Identity, DRC- Democratic 160 Republic of Congo, CRP- Critical Reagents Program, CBEP- Cooperative Biological 161 Engagement Program, USAMRIID- United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious 162 Diseases, DoD- Department of Defense, NEJM- New England Journal of Medicine, EBOV- 163 Zaire Ebola Virus.

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Hence, there is a heightened impetus for developing robust in silico methods and synthetic 166 biology approaches to reduce the need for live/inactivated pathogen samples. While in silico 167 assay design approaches cannot circumvent the need for experimental testing against actual 168

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