The Russian invasion of Ukraine may put at risk a network of US-linked labs in Ukraine that work with dangerous pathogens, said Robert Pope, the director of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, a 30-year-old Defense Department program that has helped secure the former Soviet Union’s weapons of mass destruction and redirect former bioweapons facilities and scientists toward peaceful endeavors.
The labs in Ukraine are not bioweapons facilities. The US government maintains that they are public and animal health labs operated by host countries. Although a long-running Russian disinformation campaign has painted a picture of a network of US military labs in Ukraine, Georgia, and other former Soviet republics involved in bioweapons or risky research, Pope said the labs conduct peaceful scientific research and disease surveillance.Outside experts have also said Pope’s program is not a covert bioweapons operation.
While the United States isn’t maintaining bioweapons facilities, Pope said, war could put pathogen collections in Ukraine at risk.
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Australia has biological and pathogen research labs, as do all countries; do you think Russia should invade and secure these sites?
We perform in-depth studies of microbial emergence and evolution to determine the genetic and ecological factors that allow infectious agents (and other pathogens) to emerge and spread in populations.
Collaborations
We have a well equipped bioinformatics laboratory, but can arrange for interested parties to perform laboratory work at the Westmead Millennium Institute, within the Charles Perkins Centre, and as part of the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, or with our collaborators at other locations. There are also possibilities to spend time working in other laboratories abroad. Our major international collaborators include:
