Africa is a home to growing number of biosafety organisations that work to enhance public health in their nations by bringing attention to the significance of biosafety and biosecurity. Since many African countries are low-resource countries, they frequently confront a number of obstacles that seriously limit their ability to create or grow a sustainable capacity for managing biosafety and biosecurity. The goals of biosecurity and biosafety protocols are to reduce both intentional and unintentional biological risks that could have disastrous effects on a nation's health system, agriculture, security, political and economic stability. Regrettably, on a national, regional, and international level, biosecurity and biosafety are frequently given insufficient priority.Eventhough, Africa are home to a growing number of biosafety organisations that work to enhance public health in their nations by bringing attention to the significance of biosafety and biosecurity, Standard Biosafety and Biosecurity Measures to contain hazardous infections are missing across the African continent. In this paper the current state, challenges, and future prospects of biosafety and biosecurity status of African nations discussed.

With arrival of highly transmissible Omicron variants in global pandemic, dentistry is facing another challenge to preserve biosafety of dental care. With a mission to protect both patients and healthcare workers, adaptability to the changing epidemiologic situation is required from dental professionals. This work presents a prospective sustainable biosafety setting for routine orthodontic care. The protocol is composed from combination of available technologies focused on the air-borne part of a virus pathway. Introduced biosafety protocol has been clinically evaluated after 18 months of application in the real clinical environment. The protocol has three fundamental pillars: (1) UVC air disinfection; (2) air saturation with certified virucidal oils through nebulizing diffusers; (3) complementary solutions. As a method of evaluation pseudonymous on-line smart form was used. Protocol operates with premise that everybody as a hypothetical asymptomatic carrier. Results from 115 patient feedbacks imply that with this protocol in place, there was no observed or reported translation of virus from patient to another patient or from patient to doctor or nurse and vice versa, albeit nine patients have retrospectively admitted visiting the clinic as probably infectious. Despite promising results, a larger clinical sample and exposition to current mutated strains is necessary for reliable conclusions about protocol virucidal efficiency.

Synthetic biology (SynBio) is an interdisciplinary field that has developed rapidly in the last two decades. It involves the design and construction of new biological systems and processes from standardized biological components, networks and synthetic pathways. The goal of Synbio is to create logical forms of cellular control. Biological systems and their parts can be re-designed to carry out completely new functions. SynBio is poised to greatly impact human health, environment, biofuels and chemical production with huge economic benefits. SynBio presents opportunities for the highly agro-based African economies to overcome setbacks that threaten food security: The setbacks are brought about by climate change, land degradation, over-reliance on food imports, global competition, and water and energy security issues among others. With appropriate regulatory frameworks and systems in place, the benefits of harnessing SynBio to boost development in African economies by far potentially outweigh the risks. Countries that are already using GMOs such as South Africa and Kenya should find the application of SynBio seamless, as it would be a matter of expanding the already existing regulations and policies for GMO use.

Several transgenic rice lines have been developed and are currently under field trials around the world. There are future plans for the commercial release of transgenic rice into the environment. Rice is an autogamous plant and therefore not perceived to be a very high candidate for pollen mediated gene flow to wild and weedy relatives. However, in a tropical environment like Ghana, where sexually compatible wild Oryza species which belongs to the AA genome are present within the ecology of cultivated rice, the possibility of gene flow to wild species cannot be overlooked. There is little evidence on gene flow and its consequences on the wild rice species should they acquire useful genes through gene flow. This review discusses the chances of cultivated to wild rice gene flow in Ghana and the biosafety considerations that should be put in place before the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) rice.

Brucellosis is one of the most common etiologies of laboratory-acquired infections worldwide, and handling of living brucellae should be performed in a Class II biological safety cabinet. The low infecting dose, multiple portals of entry to the body, the great variety of potentially contaminated specimens, and the unspecific clinical manifestations of human infections facilitate the unintentional transmission of brucellae to laboratory personnel. Work accidents such as spillage of culture media cause only a small minority of exposures, whereas >80% of events result from unfamiliarity with the phenotypic features of the genus, misidentification of isolates, and unsafe laboratory practices such as aerosolization of bacteria and working on an open bench without protective goggles or gloves. Although the bacteriological diagnosis of brucellae by traditional methods is simple, the Gram stain and the biochemical profile of the organism, as determined by commercial kits, can be misleading, resulting in inadvertent exposure and contagion. The use of novel identification technologies is not hazard-free. The MALDI-TOF technology requires an initial bacterial inactivation step, while the instruments’ reference database may misidentify Brucella as belonging to other Gram-negative species. The rapid identification by the FISH method mistakes brucellar isolates for members of the closely related Ochrobactrum genus.

Malnutrition, unhealthy diets, and lifestyle changes have become major risk factors for non-communicable diseases while ad-versely impacting economic growth and sustainable development. Anthocyanins, a group of flavonoids that are rich in fruits and vegetables, contribute positively to human health. This review focuses on genetic variation harnessed through crossbreeding and biotechnology-led approaches for developing anthocyanins-rich fruit and vegetable crops. Significant progress has been made in identifying genes involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis in various crops. Thus, the use of genetics has led to the development and release of anthocyanin-rich crop cultivars in Europe and USA. Such a trend is emerging in the developing world. The purple pota-to “Kufri Neelkanth” has been released for cultivation in northern India, and a few colored grain wheat lines, developed through crossbreeding, are being tested for their productivity and adaptation. Although tomato is deficient in anthocyanins, some of its wild relatives are known to accumulate anthocyanins in their sub-epidermal fruit tissue. In Europe, anthocyanin-rich tomato cul-tivar ‘Sun Black’ developed via the introgression of Aft and atv genes has been released. The development of anthocyanin-rich food crops without any significant yield penalty has been due to the use of genetic engineering involving specific transcription factors or gene editing. The anthocyanin-rich food ingredients have the potential of being more nutritious than those devoid of anthocyanins. The inclusion of anthocyanins as a target characteristic in breeding programs can ensure the development of culti-vars to meet the nutritional needs for human consumption, particularly in the developing world.

The origin of COVID-19 remains unclear despite extensive research. Theoretical models can simplify complex epigenetic landscapes by reducing vast methylation sites into manageable sets, revealing fundamental pathogen interactions that leap medical advances for the first time in tracing virus origin in the literature and practices. In our study, a max-logistic intelligence classifier analyzed 865,859 Infinium MethylationEPIC sites (CpGs), identifying eight CpGs that achieved 100% accuracy in distinguishing COVID-19 patients from other respiratory disease patients and healthy controls. One CpG, cg07126281, linked to the SAMM50 gene, shares genetic ties with rare infectious diseases like Sennetsu fever and glanders, suggesting a potential connection between COVID-19 and these diseases, possibly transmitted through contaminated seafood or glanders-infected individuals. Identifying such links among 865,859 CpG sites is challenging, with a random correlation probability of less than one in ten million. However, the likelihood of finding meaningful associations with rare diseases lowers this probability to one in one hundred million, reinforcing the credibility of our findings. These results highlight the importance of investigating seafood markets and global supply chains in tracing COVID-19's origins and emphasize the need for ongoing biosafety and biosecurity measures to prevent future outbreaks.

Various species of plants, bacteria, fungi, insects, invertebrates, and vertebrate animals produce unique small molecules, peptides, or proteins (biomolecules) for their defensive purposes. These biomolecules, also known as toxins, are poisonous (toxic) to humans and could be misused due to relatively easy accessibility and affordability. Toxins are not contagious and replicative; their effect or symptoms depend on their concentration (dose), which can take hours to days after exposure. Furthermore, for nefarious actors, preparing low-effort homemade explosives (HMEs) using household items or easily accessible chemical precursors is not difficult. To mitigate the biosecurity risks, biological scientists, law enforcement investigators, and public health response professionals should be aware of the new threats and challenges posed by low-effort toxins and HMEs. The chemical and biological investigation, evidence, and countermeasures training program was aimed at preparing biological scientists, law enforcement investigators, and public health representatives to mitigate the biosecurity risks from low-effort toxins and HMEs. The tailor-made eight-day training program containing lectures, round table discussions, immersion scenarios, practical exercises, practical assessment, and tabletop exercises helped participants to understand and close their skill gaps. The training also covered various elements associated with chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) threats from nefarious individuals and groups. Some highlights of the training are reported in this report.