Post on 30-Oct-2014
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SPECIAL TOPICS IN VIROLOGY
BIOTERRORISM & DUAL RESEARCH
Monday, February 6, 2012
OUTLINE
❖ Overview: Dual-Use Research
❖ Overview: Risks
❖ Biotechnology and Bioterrorism
❖ Case Studies
Monday, February 6, 2012
Biological Research has led to the development of new drugs, treatments, and medical
advancements that have profoundly impacted our health and way of life
The General Public holds scientists and their work in high regard and trusts that they will act in the best interest of society
Monday, February 6, 2012
What is Dual-
“Legitimate scientific work that could be misused to threaten public health or national security”
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Monday, February 6, 2012
THUS: any medical advance that improves the ease of engineering,
handling, or delivering treatment has the potential to be applied by those wishing to do harm and can be considered "dual-
use
Monday, February 6, 2012
“advances in biotechnology … have the potential to create a much more dangerous biological warfare threat … engineered biological agents could be worse than any disease
known to man.” (CIA, 2003)
Monday, February 6, 2012
“advances in biotechnology … have the potential to create a much more dangerous biological warfare threat … engineered biological agents could be worse than any disease
known to man.” (CIA, 2003)
Monday, February 6, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
❖ Dr. Wimmer, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook
❖ 1991: Published the chemical formula of the polio virus
❖ 2001:biochemically synthesized (deliberately) poliovirus according to its genomic sequence in the absence of a template without a DNA or RNA template, or the help of living cells
❖ 2002 published in Science
❖ DUAL USE Implications: unnecessarily demonstrating how bioterrorists could use modern scientific techniques to create dangerous pathogens
❖ POLICY: “prior to attempting synthesis of a microbial chromosome we commissioned an independent bioethical review of our proposed scientific plan.”
Monday, February 6, 2012
❖ Dr. Wimmer, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook
❖ 1991: Published the chemical formula of the polio virus
❖ 2001:biochemically synthesized (deliberately) poliovirus according to its genomic sequence in the absence of a template without a DNA or RNA template, or the help of living cells
❖ 2002 published in Science
❖ DUAL USE Implications: unnecessarily demonstrating how bioterrorists could use modern scientific techniques to create dangerous pathogens
❖ POLICY: “prior to attempting synthesis of a microbial chromosome we commissioned an independent bioethical review of our proposed scientific plan.”
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Monday, February 6, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
❖ PROS: experiments could uncover the reasons why the Spanish flu pandemic was so deadly and could offer insight into avian flu pathology and how it might become transmissible in humans.
❖ CONS:
❖ publication of the viral sequence, conditions under which the virus was handled and the threat of its escape into the environment;
❖ recreate deadly and transmissible though extinct or eradicated viruses;
❖ can be used for the design of a weapon of mass destruction; there is a risk verging on inevitability of accidental… or deliberate release of the virus.
❖ IMPACT TO PUBLIC HEALTH: advancement in tools to sequence genomes and synthesize DNA; BUT could be used to engineer biological weapons
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We must PREVENT such MISUSE
without IMPEDING research
PROGRESS!
“are there potential benefits to public health and safety from application or utilization of this information?”
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Monday, February 6, 2012
THANK YOU!!!
Monday, February 6, 2012