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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
The anthrax dryer referred to in the article is a lyophilizer, a type of freeze-dryer. According to the WaPo:
The device was not commonly used by researchers at the Army's sprawling biodefense complex at Fort Detrick, Md., where Ivins worked as a scientist, employees at the base said. Instead, sources said, Ivins had to go through a formal process to check out the lyopholizer, creating a record on which authorities are now relying. He did at least one project for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that would have given him reason to use the drying equipment, according to a former colleague in his lab.
But if you put 'lyophilize' and 'anthrax' into PubMed (or google or any search engine), you'll get a long list of pages about anthrax vaccines.
Consider this abstract from PubMed:
Vaccine. 1995 Dec;13(18):1779-84.Ivins B, Fellows P, Pitt L, Estep J, Farchaus J, Friedlander A, Gibbs P.
Bacteriology Division, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702-5011, USA.
The efficacy of several human anthrax vaccine candidates comprised of different adjuvants together with Bacillus anthracis protective antigen (PA) was evaluated in guinea pigs challenged by an aerosol of virulent B. anthracis spores. The most efficacious vaccines tested were formulated with PA plus monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) in a squalene/lecithin/Tween 80 emulsion (SLT) and PA plus the saponin QS-21. The PA+MPL in SLT vaccine, which was lyophilized and then reconstituted before use, demonstrated strong protective immunogenicity, even after storage for 2 years at 4 degrees C. The MPL component was required for maximum efficacy of the vaccine. Eliminating lyophilization of the vaccine did not diminish its protective efficacy. No significant alteration in efficacy was observed when PA was dialyzed against different buffers before preparation of vaccine. PA+MPL in SLT proved superior in efficacy to the licensed United States human anthrax vaccine in the guinea pig model.
So it seems that Dr. Ivins -- the lead name on this paper and many others -- had projects that required the use of lyophilizers. If you google 'lyophilize' and 'anthrax', most of the pages returned are about anthrax vaccines, which is what Dr. Ivins was working on at Ft. Detrick.
The WaPo should do some decent fact-checking rather than just writing the rubbish their sources give them. (WaPo link is in my sig)
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