Research Center in NYC Compromised - What Could Have Escaped?

I came upon this article in The Week regarding a Research Center in NYC which was horribly affected by Hurricane Sandy. The article is entitled "How Hurricane Sandy destroyed years of medical research"

The so-called Frankenstorm knocked out power to the hospital. When the storm's record-breaking tides flooded the basement, where many of the research specimens were kept, the backup generators failed, leaving the 13-story research center in the dark. The mice were inundated. Other cells, tissues, and animals used for medical research died slowly in idle refrigerators, freezers, and incubators. Precious enzymes, antibodies, and DNA strands generated by scientists and stored at temperatures as cold as -80 degrees were also almost surely destroyed.

The facility houses labs dedicated to research on heart disease, neurodegeneration, and cancer.

As I was reading this, I couldn't help but feel overwhelming sadness for the animals who died in the most horrific ways, but as I read the last line, the hair on my arms stood on end. "DNA strands generated by scientists"??? Exactly what type of research was taking place at this facility? So I googled the facility and was directed to their website here and took a look at their Program Descriptions and what some of their recent employment opportunities have been (here). A few sub-specialties jumped out at me right away:

(1) Experimental Pathology; (2) Genetics / Genomics / Proteomics; (3) Medicine: Infectious Diseases; and, (4) Microbial Pathogenesis

According to WikiPedia:

Experimental Pathology:

Experimental pathology, also known as investigative pathology is the scientific study of disease processes through the microscopic or molecular examination of organs, tissues, cells, or body fluids from diseased organisms. It is closely related, both historically and in modern academic settings, to the medical field of pathology.

OK - that makes sense...

Genetics:

Genetics deals with the molecular structure and function of genes, gene behavior in context of a cell or organism (e.g. dominance and epigenetics), patterns of inheritance from parent to offspring, and gene distribution, variation and change in populations, such as through Genome-Wide Association Studies. Given that genes are universal to living organisms, genetics can be applied to the study of all living systems, from viruses and bacteria, through plants and domestic animals, to humans (as in medical genetics).

Genomics:

Genomics is a discipline in genetics concerned with the study of the genomes of organisms. The field includes efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping. The field also includes studies of intragenomic phenomena such as heterosis, epistasis, pleiotropy and other interactions between loci and alleles within the genome. In contrast, the investigation of the roles and functions of single genes is a primary focus of molecular biology or genetics and is a common topic of modern medical and biological research. Research of single genes does not fall into the definition of genomics unless the aim of this genetic, pathway, and functional information analysis is to elucidate its effect on, place in, and response to the entire genome's networks.

Proteomics:

Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins, particularly their structures and functions.[1][2] Proteins are vital parts of living organisms, as they are the main components of the physiological metabolic pathways of cells. The term "proteomics" was first coined in 1997[3] to make an analogy with genomics, the study of the genes. The word "proteome" is a blend of "protein" and "genome", and was coined by Marc Wilkins in 1994 while working on the concept as a PhD student.[4][5] The proteome is the entire complement of proteins,[4] including the modifications made to a particular set of proteins, produced by an organism or system. This will vary with time and distinct requirements, or stresses, that a cell or organism undergoes.

This all seems to tie in too, but then...

Medicine - Infectious Disease:

Infectious diseases, also known as transmissible diseases or communicable diseases comprise clinically evident illness (i.e., characteristic medical signs and/or symptoms of disease) resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism.

Infectious pathogens include some viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, multicellular parasites, and aberrant proteins known as prions. These pathogens are the cause of disease epidemics, in the sense that without the pathogen, no infectious epidemic occurs.

The term infectivity describes the ability of an organism to enter, survive and multiply in the host, while the infectiousness of a disease indicates the comparative ease with which the disease is transmitted to other hosts.[2] Transmission of pathogen can occur in various ways including physical contact, contaminated food, body fluids, objects, airborne inhalation, or through vector organisms.[1]

Infectious diseases are sometimes called "contagious" when they are easily transmitted by contact with an ill person or their secretions (e.g., influenza). Thus, a contagious disease is a subset of infectious disease that is especially infective or easily transmitted. Other types of infectious/transmissible/communicable diseases with more specialized routes of infection, such as vector transmission or sexual transmission, are usually not regarded as "contagious," and often do not require medical isolation (sometimes loosely called quarantine) of victims. However, this specialized connotation of the word "contagious" and "contagious disease" (easy transmissibility) is not always respected in popular use.

Huh??? What does infectious diseases have to do with heart disease, neurodegeneration or cancer?

Lastly, from Yale Univ, Microbial Pathogenesis:

The scientific focus of the Department is to study microbial pathogens through multidisciplinary approaches. Understanding the mechanisms by which microbial pathogens cause disease requires an understanding of the pathogenic microorganisms themselves as well as the cellular and immune responses they stimulate in the host. In the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis we are researching these interactions for a wide variety of important viral, bacterial, and parasitic pathogens.

This gives me the downright willies...

For some reason, the combination of these areas of interest leads me to wonder if there might have been more going on here than research into heart disease, neurodegeneration, and cancer. It begs the question, what other nasties might have been compromised when the facility's protection systems broke down?

This is the type of stuff that makes me shudder...

Wow!!! thats worrying.

If I lived in that area I'd be taking a long holiday in another state until I knew it was safe to come back.

I'm hoping they were smart and destroyed everything before the storm hit

Originally posted by VoidHawk
If I lived in that area I'd be taking a long holiday in another state until I knew it was safe to come back.

Considering it's located in the part of Manhattan that currently has no gas and people dumpster diving for food, I'd say they're not going anywhere too quickly. If you ask me, this is very scary stuff!!

reply to post by birdyat101

I agree but if you read the whole article, it describes how the staff ran to an adjacent facility to help evacuate patients. Who knows what they had time to do before leaving.

wow...that is scary...and not something we readily think of when there is a huge storm or other natural disaster... I have wondered in the past about whether or not evidence in cases are destroyed when a major flood hits an area, depends on where the flooding happens of course.

So when I read an article about this I got all conspiratorial (thanks a lot guys).

What if they used the storm as an excuse to eradicate all the research because they found a cure?

reply to post by research100

This article caught my eye because when Sandy hit, I was in an area of PA where Merck Pharm is located and one of the topics of discussion was what would happen if Merck lost power? Now, I would have to think that most of these laboratories have back-up generators to keep the truly dangerous substances contained; however, the article says that the research facility in NYC had a back-up generator that failed. Nothing is fail-proof and that's the reality.

Originally posted by Domo1
So when I read an article about this I got all conspiratorial (thanks a lot guys).

What if they used the storm as an excuse to eradicate all the research because they found a cure?

Interesting angle and one I hadn't even considered. My mind automatically goes to horrible pathogens, epidemics and zombies whereas yours goes in the opposite direction. Both valid thoughts!

A very scary thought and one that gives new meaning to the word Frankenstorm. The movie "I Am Legend" comes to mind.

It could be almost anything with those terms. If it all died, it's probably just a big mess for clean up.

Glow-In-The-Dark Cats Help With AIDS Research

That was Mayo Clinic research. China gets downright...wild with theirs. None of it would be a public threat except perhaps scaring someone half to death. I mean, that kitty looking in my bedroom window would have my heart finding those outer limits if it got loose.

What about Plum Island?
Last I heard they wanted to move this research facility to the middle of a Kansas City stockyard area.
Don't know if they ever did.
Does anybody know?

My theory is that this is not the only place or thing to get compromised and we will be hearing all about it soon enough, mark my word the clock is ticking.

reply to post by PaperbackWriter

That is being put together at Manhattan, Kansas. It's a BSL 1-4 Lab. So..Yeah, it's set to handle the really really bad stuff.

National Bio-Agro Defense Facility

This was the info I was looking for earlier when I got disrupted. Excellent thread and well done.

Keep hunting for the truth, I have a hunch that this is the start of something beyond sinister for humanity.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by PaperbackWriter

 

That is being put together at Manhattan, Kansas. It's a BSL 1-4 Lab. So..Yeah, it's set to handle the really really bad stuff.

National Bio-Agro Defense Facility

Aaaargh. I guess it isn't due to move to the new facility until 2018!!
Yet, another lapse of reporting by the media who've neglected to inform if any damage was sustained to this facility. I guess we'll know the answer to that when unidentifiable animals resume washing up onshore at Long Island beaches. Urgh.
Thanks.

Originally posted by antar
This was the info I was looking for earlier when I got disrupted. Excellent thread and well done.

Keep hunting for the truth, I have a hunch that this is the start of something beyond sinister for humanity.

So do I.........

Bio tech companies both private and DoD supported are all up and down the East coast. Without power, containment can't be assured and this could get very ugly. Perhaps the FEMA coffins are for something of this magnitude.

OP, from your snippets of info, it appears these scientists were on the verge of figuring out that pathogens cause disease.

If pathogens do cause disease than I hope immune research is in full throttle.

I do hope that evolution of research will prove in the future that above ground and 4 generator backups will prove more absolute in the future.

Well better get your Zoomby Amo ready.
But then again I'm been in bed with a bad cold now for almost two week.