Are you concerned that many researchers may be leaving the non-biodefense field to pursue biodefense research?
Whether researchers are working with microbes for biodefense or non-biodefense, they are still contributing to the broad base of knowledge in infectious diseases and immunology. As science evolves, new opportunities emerge and fields change. The relatively new biodefense field shares many aspects with the non-biodefense and emerging infectious disease fields. Biodefense has provided additional opportunities for experienced non-biodefense researchers to apply their knowledge to scientific questions in biodefense. In addition, biodefense has created new training and research opportunities for early career scientists. As we have seen in the past, whenever a new field of science emerges with many unanswered questions, scientists move forward to fill the gaps using the foundation of their knowledge from other scientific fields. For example, when SARS emerged, talented and established influenza researchers were well positioned to help solve this new problem without compromising the status of
