September 2015 SPADA Meeting

CHAIR BIOS:  WORKING GROUP CHAIRS

Paul Jackson, PhD  Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (Retired)  SPADA BACILLUS ANTHRACIS WORKING GROUP CO‐CHAIR 

Paul received his Bachelor's of Science degree from the University of Washington in Cellular Biology and  his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in Molecular Biology. He was a visiting scholar at the Center for  International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University from September 2011‐September  2012 and is now a CISAC affiliate. He is also an adjunction professor at the Middlebury Institute of  International Studies at Monterey (formerly the Monterey Institute of International Studies) where he  team teaches a class entitled “Science and Technology for Non‐proliferation and Terrorism Studies”.  For the past 24 years he has been studying bacterial pathogens, first working to develop DNA‐based  methods of detecting these microbes and their remnants in environmental and laboratory samples, then  developing methods to differentiate among different strains of the same pathogenic species. Research  interests include the study of different methods of interrogating biological samples for detection and  characterization of content, and development of bioforensic tools that provide detailed information  about biothreat isolates including full interrogation of samples for strain content and other genetic  traits.  Methods he and collaborators developed have been applied to forensic analysis of samples and  aid in identifying the source of disease outbreaks. He contributed to analysis of the Bacillus anthracis present in the 2001 Amerithrax letters and conducted detailed analyses of human tissue samples  preserved from the 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax outbreak, providing evidence that was inconsistent with  Soviet government claims of a natural anthrax outbreak.  His current interests continue to focus on  development of assays that rapidly detect specific signatures including antibiotic resistance in threat  agents and other pathogens. More recent activities include identification and characterization of new  antimicrobial compounds that are based on the pathogens' own genes and the products they encode.  These include development of such materials as therapeutic antimicrobials, their application to  remediate high value contaminated sites and materials, and their use to destroy large cultures and  preparations of different bacterial threat agents. Efforts to address issues of antibiotic resistance and  treatment of resistant organisms have recently been expanded to look at non‐threat agent pathogens  that cause problematic nosocomial or community‐acquired infections of particular interest to the  military.