Surrogate Microorganism Selector for Biothreat Research

A Microsoft Excel-based dataset from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, designed to help researchers identify surrogate microorganisms for emerging biothreat pathogens. It facilitates just-in-time laboratory research by providing a user-friendly tool for selecting safer alternatives to pathogenic agents. The dataset was last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Identify surrogate microorganisms for specific pathogenic microorganisms using the dataset's lookup tables.
• Filter and select appropriate surrogates based on organism characteristics likely encoded in the Excel columns.
• Support just-in-time research decisions by querying the dataset's curated list of surrogate-pathogen pairs.

Strengths

• Designed for user-friendly interaction within Microsoft Excel.
• Curated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an authoritative organization.
• Last updated in April 2026, indicating recent maintenance.

Limitations

• Unknown total number of rows, columns, and specific data fields.
• Relies on a proprietary file format (XLS) which may require specific software.
• Scope and comprehensiveness of the surrogate list are not quantified.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Freshness

Last updated in April 2026.