Dual use research some potential threats to humanity

1. DUAL USE RESEARCH ;
SOME POTENTIAL
THREATS TO HUMANITY
Presented by : Irum Khan

2. DUAL USE RESEARCH
 Biological research with legitimate scientific purpose that may be
misused to pose a biologic threat to public health and/or national
security.
Scientific research that can be used for both good and harmful
purposes

3. NATIONAL ACADEMIES
REPORT ON DUAL USE
RESEARCH
Report of the National Research Council of the
National Academies:
“Biotechnology Research in an Age of
Terrorism: Confronting the Dual Use Dilemma”
(October 2003)

5. LIFE SCIENCES RESEARCH
Life sciences research underpins:
 Biomedical and public health advances
 Improvements in agriculture
 Safety and quality of food supply
 Environmental quality
 Strong national security and economy
 However, good science can be put to bad uses

7. CASE STUDY

8. JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY,
FEB. 2001, P. 1205–1210 VOL. 75, NO. 3
In australia, researchers inserted the mouse IL-4 gene into the mousepox virus
Purpose- induce sterility in mice
Produced a superstrain of mousepox
Risk- production of vaccine-resistant smallpox
This study was published in the journal of virology in 2001.
Do you agree with the decision to publish?

9. CASE STUDY 2
Engineering a protein - known as SPICE - produced by the smallpox virus.
Reveal the extent to which, this protein defeats the human immune system
Purpose- to facilitate development of protective medicines.
Risk- increase the virulence of the closely-related vaccinia virus

10. SPANISH FLU VIRUS
reconstruct" the Spanish Flu virus
 facilitate development of drugs and vaccines
used for nefarious purposes by malevolent actors.

11. GENETIC SEQUENCING OF
PATHOGENIC MICRO-ORGANISMS
Anthrax
In a letter to Nature, Read et al. describe the sequencing of the Ames strain
of Bacillus anthracis (anthrax)
Report benefits
virulence genes on plamids
‘‘chromosomally encoded proteins that may contribute to pathogenicity’’
‘numerous surface proteins that might be important targets for vaccines and drugs’

12. ANTHRAX AS A BIOWEAPON
Anthrax may be the prototypic disease of bioterrorism although rarely spread
from person to person
U.S. and British government scientists studied anthrax as a biologic weapon
beginning approximately at the time of World War II (WWII).
Soviet Union in the late 1980s stored hundreds of tons of anthrax spores for
potential use as a bioweapon
At present there is suspicion that research on anthrax is ongoing by several
nations and extremist groups
One example of this is the release of anthrax spores by the Aum Shrinrikyo
cult in Tokyo in 1993. Fortunately, there were no casualties associated with this
episode.
September 2001: anthrax spores delivered through the U.S. Postal System

14. ALTERING THE HOST RANGE OF
THE H5N1 BIRD FLU VIRUS (2011)
Purpose:
To improve rsk assessment of circulating strain
Risk:
Threat of future pendamic

15. LESSONS LEARNED?
Depending on the circumstances, seemingly harmless research can have potential dual
use implications.
Difficult to know where research will lead us, it is important to consider the potential
consequences of the research we do as we are doing it and as we are publishing it.

16. ETHICS
The dual-use dilemma is inherently ethical in nature.
Research ethics focused on the protection of human and animal research
subjects
Rarely mention problems posed by dual-use research.

17. RECOMMENDATION

18. WEIGHING THE RISKS AND
BENEFITS
In 2003 thirty-two scientific journals (ASM journals, Science, Nature) agreed on a
process for reviewing, modifying, and perhaps even rejecting research articles where
‘the potential harm of publication outweighs the potential societal benefits.’
UK Welcome Trust has taken dual-use potential of research into account in
reviewing proposals

19. RESULTS OF APPLYING
RISK/BENEFIT ANALYSIS
No publication yet stopped in any journals; though two were modified.
Wellcome Trust never refused an application or imposed publication restrictions
because of dual use concerns
‘Extreme’ case: 2005 Sequencing and reconstruction of 1918 Spanish Flu virus:
NSABB, Science, Nature agree benefits outweighed the risk