Ep. 104: The Science Behind Netflix’s “The Anthrax Attacks” – Dr. Paul Keim

In this week’s episode, Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are interviewing Dr. Paul Keim, who was recently featured in the noteworthy 2022 Netflix documentary "The Anthrax Attacks", about his essential and pivotal scientific research used in the FBI’s 2001 anthrax letters investigation. While the Netflix series focused on the twists and turns of the nationwide manhunt, here on Halteres Presents Dr. Keim is able to more thoroughly delve into the science behind his laboratory’s analysis of the 2001 anthrax letters, and to explain why there may never be a true “smoking gun” in this infamous case.

Dr. Paul Keim is the executive director of the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute (PMI) at Northern Arizona University (NAU), a joint program between NAU and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) which uses genomic tools to protect America against dangerous pathogens, in particular Bacillus anthracis (anthrax). A graduate of NAU himself, where after 34 years on the faculty he holds the Cowden Endowed Chair in Microbiology and is a Regents Professor, Dr. Keim was trained as a protein biochemist before moving into molecular microbiological genetics and genomics as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah. Dr. Keim is an elected fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy for Microbiology. The National Institutes of Health appointed him to the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity in 2004 and served as its chairman for two years. He has published over 450 scientific research articles that have been cited over 30,000 times.