Guest guest Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?SearchID=73156359928062 & Avis=T\ O & Dato=20031214 & Kategori=NEWS28 & Lopenr=112140151 & Ref=AR 14, 2003 Biotech threat scenarios get scary By MIKE WOODS BLADE SCIENCE EDITOR WASHINGTON - A newly declassified Central Intelligence Agency report warns that rogue scientists could highjack biotechnology and create super-microbes far worse than the virus staring in " 24 Hours, " Fox television’s popular drama. The CIA portrays them as viruses and bacteria from hell. " The effects of some of these engineered biological agents could be worse than any disease known to man, " the report stated. " The same science that may cure some of our worst diseases could be used to create the world’s most frightening weapons. " Entitled " The Darker Bioweapons Future, " it was prepared for the CIA’s Strategic Assessments Group by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The academy is an organization of top scientists, based in Washington, that advises the federal government on science. Almost a dozen experts on bio weapons declined to comment on whether the CIA report exaggerated the threat. Dr. Stanley Falkow, of Stanford University, for instance, noted that he chaired another NAS panel that is writing its own report on the bio weapon threat. Scheduled for completion in 2004, it addresses some of the points raised in the CIA report. " I will be uncharacteristically silent about this for the moment, " said Dr. Falkow, a noted professor of microbiology. " I do think there is always a bit of arrogance involved when humans proclaim that they can design infectious agents better than those seen in Nature. The bar is pretty high when one considers HIV/AIDS, or just plain old-fashioned plague. Surely SARS scares the pants off a lot of people. " The CIA report is among dozens that have expressed concern about possible intentional misuse of biotechnology, or accidents in legitimate research labs, that create deadly new " designer " viruses and bacteria. The microbes, difficult to detect and stop, could kill or disable people or cause famines by decimating crops and livestock. Concern predates the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which led President Bush to declare biological warfare one of the top two 21st century security threats. The other was " information warfare " involving terrorist attacks on the Internet and other information channels. In 1999, for instance, the U.S. Department of Defense decided to find out whether scientists really could make a disease-causing virus from scratch. DOD gave the job to Dr. Eckard Wimmer, of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. It took his team 3 years to cook up the world’s first homemade virus - a synthetic polio virus - with off-the-shelf ingredients. By November, 2003, the time scale for cobbling together a synthetic virus shrunk to 2 weeks. That’s how long it took genome pioneer J. Craig Venter, Nobel laureate Hamilton O. Smith, and an associate to make an artificial " Phi X " virus, thanks to advanced genetic engineering technology. The CIA report said such technology could be used to paste new genes into naturally occurring microbes, creating viruses or bacteria that are greater health menaces. That’s the scenario thrilling millions of " 24-Hour " fans. The series, staring Keifer Sutherland, is about a crime gang that uses a designer virus against the government. " The virus has been engineered to kill more rapidly, " according to Fox’s plot summary. " With one initial location of this weaponized strain, thousands of people could be infected within two days. Over a million people will die in the first week. " In scientific terms, Fox’s fictional virus has " enhanced virulence, " and would result from 1 of 7 specific biotechnology experiments that top real-world science’s worry list. NAS detailed them as " experiments of concern " in an October, 2003, report that called for limitations on experiments that attempt to: Enhance the virulence of disease-causing microbes, or change harmless microbes into disease-causing microbes. Render human or animal vaccines ineffective by making microbes that sicken people despite immunization against polio, measles, tetanus, anthrax, or other diseases. Engineer viruses and bacteria with built-in resistance to antibiotics or anti-viral drugs that are used to treat people, animals, or crops. Enhance the transmissibility of disease-causing microbes so that influenza viruses or food poisoning bacteria, for instance, spread easier. Give animal or plant microbes genes that enable them to cause diseases in humans, or alter human microbes so they can decimate livestock or crops. Create microbes that evade diagnostic tests. Could lead to the weaponization of microbes or other biological agents, so they can be dispersed easily. Some of those possibilities are fact. Researchers at St. Louis University in November announced creation of a retooled mousepox virus that defeats a vaccine for the disease, which is a cousin of smallpox. " There are a number of perfectly valid reasons for researchers to perform ‘experiments of concern,’ " Dr. James B. Petro noted. He is an expert on bio weapons at the Joint Military Intelligence College in Washington. The St. Louis research, for instance, was part of legitimate research to find treatments for biological weapon agents. Scientists may want to know how specific threat agents behave in different environments so they can prepare countermeasures against an attack. Dr. Petro noted that seemingly harmless research can have unexpected results. In 2001, for instance, Australian researchers accidentally created a more potent form of the monkey poxvirus by pasting in an easily available immune-regulating gene. Other scientists have reproduced a key protein from the smallpox virus that blocks part of the human immune response. That technique " could be applied to other naturally occurring pathogens, such as anthrax and smallpox, greatly increasing their lethality, " the CIA report said. Looming on the horizon are new " binary " and " stealth " bio weapons that would be very difficult to detect, the report warned. Binary weapons are 2-part concoctions, both of which are harmless until combined. Terrorists, the report suggested, could release a custom-designed virus that causes mild headaches or indigestion. But it would become lethal and spread when victims take a treatment like aspirin or antacid. A stealth bio weapon might be a virus that infects people and lies dormant inside the body for months until being triggered by something else. The report mentions a possible " stealth virus attack that could cripple a large portion of people in their 40s with severe arthritis, concealing its hostile origin and leaving a country with widespread health and economic problems. " " The resulting diversity of new biological weapons agents could enable such a broad range of attack scenarios that it virtually would be impossible to anticipate or defend against, " said the report. Other experts, however, question that fatalism. " Fortunately, the same advances in genomics that could be used to produce bio weapons can also be used to set up countermeasures against them, " Drs. Claire M. Fraser and Malcolm R. Dando concluded in one study. Dr. Fraser, of The Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., and Dr. Dando, of the University of Branford in England, are experts who reviewed bio weapons threats in the journal Nature Genetics. They identified many of the same threats described in the CIA report, but detailed how new genetics technology could thwart them. For instance, a new generation of bio sensors, based on DNA chip technology, could quickly detect " any biological warfare agent, " they said. That includes synthetic viruses and natural microbes engineered with antibiotic resistance or other unusual traits. Data on the genes that make up disease-causing microbes, also will make it easier to develop vaccines and antibiotics that work against bio weapons, they said. The CIA report called for a partnership between biologists and the national security community to reduce the risk of biotechnology’s misuse. It envisions the bio science community acting as " a living sensor web - at international conferences, in university labs, and through informal networks - to identify and alert it to new technical advances with weaponizing potential. " NAS laid out another roadmap in its October report. It proposed, for instance, a formal system for reviewing " experiments of concern " before they are done and deciding whether results should be published openly. " The life science community should take the lead in partnering with national security professionals to draft guidelines for identifying research of concern. The report proposes a tiered system of review to identify experiments that raise concern because of their high potential for misuse. Community Newsletters http://www.alternative-medicine-newsletter.info Community Message Boards. http://www.alternative-medicine-message-boards.info New Photos - easier uploading and sharing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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