Federation of American Scientists Module 1.0: Introduction
Topic: Control Efforts Subtopic: The Fink Report

The Fink Report Image

In 2003, the National Research Councils Committee on Research Standards and Practices to Prevent the Destructive Application of Biotechnology released a report entitled Biotechnology Research in an Age of Terrorism, (commonly called the Fink Report after the committee chairman, Dr. Gerald Fink), which outlined steps the US government should take to prevent the misappropriation of legitimate biotechnologies by terrorists. These included recommendations for educating the scientific community, as well as relying on a tiered review system employing local institutional biosafety committees and a new entity, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB). The report further recommended that the scientific community continue self-governance for scientific publications, seek better means of communication between law enforcement and the scientific community, and create programs to educate life scientists about the risks involved in advanced biotechnology research and about scientists responsibility to address and manage the risks. The Fink report remains the most influential document on post-9/11 biosecurity.

The report identified 7 experiments of concern including those that:
 
1)
demonstrate how to render a vaccine ineffective,
2)
confer resistance to antibiotics or antiviral agents,
3)
enhance the virulence of a pathogen,
4)
increase transmissibility of a pathogen,
5)
alter a pathogens host range,
6)
enable evasion of diagnostic tools, and
7)
enable weaponization of a biological agent.
 

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