Dual use research

DUAL USE RESEARCH ; SOME POTENTIAL THREATS TO

HUMANITYPresented by : Irum Khan

DUAL USE RESEARCHBiological 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 

NATIONAL ACADEMIESREPORT 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)

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

CASE STUDY

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?

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 

SPANISH FLU VIRUS

reconstruct" the Spanish Flu virus

 facilitate development of drugs and vaccines 

used for nefarious purposes by malevolent actors.

GENETIC SEQUENCING OF PATHOGENIC MICRO-ORGANISMS

AnthraxIn a letter to Nature, Read et al. describe the sequencing of the Ames strain of Bacillus anthracis (anthrax)Report benefitsvirulence genes on plamids‘‘chromosomally encoded proteins that may contribute to pathogenicity’’‘numerous surface proteins that might be important targets for vaccines and drugs’

ANTHRAX AS A BIOWEAPON

Anthrax may be the prototypic disease of bioterrorism although rarely spread from person to personU.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 bioweaponAt present there is suspicion that research on anthrax is ongoing by several nations and extremist groupsOne 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

ALTERING THE HOST RANGE OF THE H5N1 BIRD FLU VIRUS (2011) Purpose: To improve rsk assessment of circulating strain

Risk: Threat of future pendamic

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.

ETHICSThe 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.

RECOMMENDATION

WEIGHING THE RISKS AND BENEFITSIn 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

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