Bioterrorism is defined as the use of microorganisms that cause human disease, or the toxins released from them, to harm people or elicit widespread fear or intimidation of society. Biological/chemical weapons are devices to deliberately disseminate disease producing organisms or toxins in food, water, insect vector or as an aerosol.

Public health officials, medical personnel, firefighters, military and other law enforcement personnel need to be able to quickly identify the most threatening of the biological weapons, specially those that require preparedness measures.

A number of of Pharmacom's initiatives are to identify the correct medical response under the diverse mode of biological attacks. We focus on emerging infectious disease research, including research on pathogens that can be used as agents of bioterrorism. Biodefense research is similar to that of other emerging infectious diseases. It entails research to understand the pathogenesis of these microbes, how the host responds to them, and the translation of this knowledge into useful treatments, diagnostics and vaccines.