Scientists Warn of GE Biowar

http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html
Thursday, May 17

SATAN BUG WITHIN REACH: NATURE

PARIS, May 16 (AFP) - Genetic engineers already have it within their
grasp to devise a lethal bio-weapon for terrorists and rogue states,
the British science publication Nature warns this week.

Small changes in the DNA of well-known bacteria and viruses could turn
these agents into mass killers, the prestigious journal says in an article to
appear in Thursday's issue.

"Making subtle genetic alterations to existing pathogens to increase
their virulence or durability in the environment, or to make them harder
to detect or to treat with drugs, is within the limits of today's
technology," Nature says.

"With the decoding of a pathogen's entire genome now commonplace, and
transgenic techniques advancing all the time, some researchers believe
that the sinister potential of biology can no longer be ignored."

Biowarfare -- use of germs or viruses such as anthrax or smallpox -- has
long been a scenario considered by military strategists.

However, the risk has increased thanks to advances in knowledge about how
genes work; new techniques for moving pieces of DNA around; and the
relative ease, compared with the past, with which a rogue organisation
could build or hire a lab to build such a weapon.

Scientists interviewed by Nature ruled out, for the time being, the
ability to build new, artificial agents from a set of component parts.

A far simpler way would be to tweak the performance of an existing
bacteria to make it more resistant to antibiotics, they said.

The genetic sequences of bacteria such as tuberculosis, cholera, leprosy
and the plague are already in the public domain -- as is that of a food
poisoning bug, Staphylococcus aureus, that is already becoming resistant
to antibiotics.

By identifying the genes from Staphylococcus aureus that make the bug
resistant, and inserting them into the other bacteria, a scientist could
make a killer for which there would be scant defence.

A scientist in the US, Willem Stemmer, chief scientist with Maxygen, a
California pharmaceutical research firm, used one of these techniques to
explore how resistance genes work, Nature reports.

He created a strain of the common intestinal bug Escherichia coli that
was 32,000 times more resistant to the antibiotic cefotaxime than
conventional strains. Stemmer destroyed the superbug in response to
concerns from the American Society for Microbiology about potential
misuse.

In a case published in January, a pair of Australian scientists, Ron
Jackson and Ian Ramshaw accidentally created an astonishingly virulent
strain of mousepox, a cousin of smallpox, among laboratory mice.

The scientists realised that if similar genetic manipulation was carried
out on smallpox, an unstoppable killer could be unleashed. They decided
to publish their findings to draw attention to the potential misuse of
biotechnology.

"It's time for biologists to begin asking what means we have to keep the
technology from being used in subverted ways," said Harvard University
molecular biologist Matthew Meselson, who has repeatedly spoken out on
the dangers of biowarfare.