Lumpen radio host Jamie Trecker interviews biosafety officer Allen Helm The following is an edited transcript of an interview with bacteriologist Allen Helm, a senior biosafety officer in the Office of Research Safety at the University of Chicago, about the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, conducted by host Jamie Trecker. The interview aired on March 11 on Lumpen Radio, WLPN: 105.5 FM. Reprinted with permission. ✶ ✶ ✶ ✶ Jamie Trecker: We wanted to try to talk to someone who deals with bugs [pathogens] in the laboratory and has some insight into biosafety. So I’m really pleased to welcome the [...]

CAREER FEATURE 04 March 2020   Behind the scenes in the biosafety office It’s never a dull day for those tasked with keeping biological research safe for all. David Gillum received a flood of phone calls in January, after his university announced that someone in the campus community had been diagnosed with the COVID-19 coronavirus. Gillum is the director of environmental health and safety at Arizona State University in Tempe, and many of the calls were from biosafety officers around the globe. They were seeking his expertise and guidance in the event that their own institutions were in the same [...]