1. SPECIAL TOPICS IN
VIROLOGY
BIOTERRORISM & DUAL
RESEARCH
Monday, February 6, 2012
2. OUTLINE
❖ Overview: Dual-Use Research
❖ Overview: Risks
❖ Biotechnology and Bioterrorism
❖ Case Studies
Monday, February 6, 2012
3. 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
4. “Legitimate scientific work that could be misused to
threaten public health or national security”
What is
Dual-
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6. 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
7. “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
8. “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
10. ❖ 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
11. ❖ 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
17. ❖ 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
Monday, February 6, 2012
18. “are there potential benefits
to public health and safety
from application or utilization
of this information?”
We must PREVENT
such MISUSE
without IMPEDING
research
PROGRESS!
Monday, February 6, 2012
