ZKEA

Emerging Diseases : Biological Terrorism : Biological Warfare

Artificial Organisms, Synthetic Viruses

Did the Stony Brook team succeed in creating synthetic life? This is a grey zone and a matter for debate. Viruses, by definition, can not reproduce outside of their host. They are essentially naked genetic material wrapped in a protein coat. Their life-cycle requires them to take over another cell, inject their genes into the host's chromosomes and in this manner redirect the cell's protein manufacturing capabilities into the production of more viruses. Only in this fashion can viruses reproduce. Thus, in a deep sense, viruses are incomplete organisms. Bacteria, on the other hand, are not merely their DNA. A bacterial cell has a complex array of other structures that support its metabolism and allow it to live an independent existence.

For this reason, creating artificial bacteria would be orders of magnitude more complex than creating a virus. Even so, in principle there is no reason why the methodologies used on viruses can not one day be scaled up to larger and more complex organisms. In fact, work towards this goal is proceeding very quickly. Scientists at TIGR (The Institute for Genomic Research) are deconstructing the simplest bacterium known, Mycoplasma genitalium. Given its benign habitat - the human urogenital tract - this bacterium has shed genes over its long evolution to the point where only 470 are required. Thus it makes a perfect template for creating a basic synthetic life-form. Work is going on to achieve this goal. (Although some might question the wisdom of creating an artificial bacterium based off one that natively inhabits human beings, a 1999 review of this program by a panel of religious figures and ethicists conveniently turned up no fundamental objections).

Future advances, ethics and philosophical questions about life aside, why was the Stony Brook experiment conducted in the first place? The reasons were quite practical. Simply put, viruses have an increasingly productive role in biotechnology. For example, modified viruses, in which the disease-causing elements have been switched off, could be used to ferry useful genes into a target organism. A synthetic virus allows full control of all aspects of the genome, allowing the virus to be completely tailored to the required task. Thus this experiment was a very important accomplishment enabling future progress towards improved therapies and medicines.

Of course, viruses are good for other uses as well. For example, they are very good at killing people. Thus this experiment - while fully ethical and valid from the scientific perspective - also was an important marker from the bioweapon vantage point. It adds a new and incredibly potent tool to the development of germ arsenals. It serves notice that is now possible to create fully artificial bioweapons, specifically tailored to particular effects, modes of transmissions and targets.

Imagine this scenario: in the near future, in some scrubby backwater, a dictator or terrorist leader tells his biological technician that he'd like a virus tailored to just kill members of a particular ethnic group. The virus should be 100% lethal and easily transmissible by air and water. In addition, the virus should be immune to all known anti-virals. Finally, the virus should be invisible to current detection methods, hardy, and easily weaponized and spread.

The technician fires up his web browser and goes shopping for gene sequences. These sequences, technically known as oligomers, are easily available in internet databases. These databases are growing exponentially as laboratories around the world isolate and characterize more sequences. The technician picks and chooses; a virulence gene there, some hardiness patterns here, some oligomers known to produce pathogenic results biased towards the target group over there. Finding a suitable collection he combines them and stuffs the completed RNA into a generic viral envelope. He then replicates the resulting virus and hands the final product over to his leader. Pleased, the leader gives the hard-working technician a bonus gift certificate redeemable at McDonalds, a camel and two new wives.

Is this reality yet? Not quite, but neither is it science fiction. The techniques to accomplish such work are still not widely known, nor are all the required oligomers necessarily yet available. It will probably take a few years before critical mass is reached and the scenario above becomes an everyday reality. Even so, the technological foundations have been established. As the past few years have proved, biotechnology is rushing forwards with unstoppable momentum. What is top-echelon research by elite labs one day becomes commonplace manipulation by average technicians the next. The trend is clear and inevitable.

In the meantime, as defenders of these kinds of experiments rightly point out, there are far easier and lower-tech ways to procure or create apocalyptic biological weapons. It is much more likely that billions will die from one of these modified natural agents than from a fully artificial weapon. Apparently this thought is meant to be comforting.

Link: Building a Polio Virus from Scratch
Link: BBC: The First Synthetic Virus Created