Outcry over creation of GM smallpox virus

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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/story.jsp?story=603456Outcry over creation of GM smallpox virusBy Steve Connor, Science Editor22 January 2005Senior scientific advisers to the World Health Organisation (WHO) haverecommended the creation of a genetically modified version of the smallpoxvirus to counter any threat of a bioterrorist attack.Permitting researchers to engineer the genes of one of the most dangerousinfections known to man would make it easier to develop new drugs againstsmallpox, the scientists said. But the man who led the successful globalvaccination campaign to eradicate smallpox from the wild said he opposed themove on the grounds that the scientific benefits were not worth the risks topublic health.Professor Donald Henderson, of the Centre for Biosecurity at the Universityof Pittsburgh, said he feared that tinkering with the genetic makeup of thevariola virus - which causes smallpox - might accidentally produce a morelethal form of the disease."What I worry about is that there is rather too much done in this area andthe minute you start fooling around with it in various ways, I think thereis a danger," Professor Henderson said. "I'd be happier if we were not doingit and the simple reason is I just don't think it serves a purpose I cansupport. The less we do with the smallpox virus and the less we do in theway of manipulation at this point I think the better off we are."Laboratory stocks of smallpox are stored at only two locations - one inAmerica and one in Russia - but there are fears that samples of the virusmay have fallen into the hands of terrorists.Scientists advising the WHO believe that creating a GM form of the viruswould accelerate research into developing new antivirals. The WHO is due toconsider the recommendations of its scientific committee at the world healthassembly in May.Four years ago, scientists in Australia genetically modified a mousepoxvirus and inadvertently created a highly virulent strain that could not bestopped by vaccination. But the WHO insisted the latest proposal to engineerthe human smallpox virus was inherently safer.Professor Geoffrey Smith of Imperial College London, who chairs the WHOcommittee for variola virus research, said American scientists simply wantedto insert a jellyfish gene, which produced a glow under fluorescent light,in order to see the virus better under the microscope."The reason why the proposal was made and the reason why the committee wasprepared to consider it was that it is clear that there is a need to developdrugs against the virus," Professor Smith said. "The quickest way to screena large database of compounds is to have an automated way and if you have avirus that expresses the green fluorescent protein you can do the drugscreening in a much more rapid and automated way."It is understood there are seven recommendations in the proposal, includingpermission to allow relatively large fragments of the virus - up to 20 percent of its entire genome - to be shipped from the two secure laboratoriesto other research institutes in the world. Another recommendation allowsRussian and US laboratories to snip small fragments of the virus and insertthem into other members of the same pox-virus family.Smallpox is one of the biggest killers in the history of infectiousdiseases. At least 300 million people died of it in the 20th century alone.It was eradicated in 1977. 24 January 2005 15:02