World's
most deadly bugs... in the hands of terrorists
EBEN HARRELL ([email protected])
NEW technology that would give terrorists the power to create
deadly bacteria and viruses from scratch is only years away from
completion and threatens to make existing controls on biological
weapons obsolete, experts warned yesterday.
Synthetic biology is an emerging field that allows scientists to
build micro-organisms from simple genetic material, in theory
enabling the creation of deadly pathogens such as ebola or anthrax
without access to existing stockpiles of the bugs.
The technology could also allow terrorists or scientists in rogue
states to jumble the genetic signature of the bugs in order to
render them unrecognisable to health experts dealing with an
outbreak, potentially delaying treatment and preventing authorities
from tracing the origin of an attack.
The concerns were raised at a biosecurity conference at Edinburgh
University yesterday in the run-up to a major review of the
Biological Weapons Convention in Geneva later this month.
Dr Ronald Atlas, a biosecurity expert, from the University of
Louisville in the United States, said there was a "loophole" in
current oversight measures.
"The looming threat right now is what synthetic biologists can
do.
"There is significant oversight over who can acquire ebola or
Marburg. But with synthetic biology, you can potentially synthesise
de novo [from scratch] so you don't have to get the viruses from
someone. If you can synthesise without the organism, by just taking
chemicals, mixing them together and making Marburg; if I can just
go out and make it from a chemistry set, that is a looming threat
and in the near future that technical barrier is going to be
falling."
Scientists have already shown how easy it can be to create
synthetic viruses.
Last year, a team in New York created a synthetic polio virus using
information about its gene sequence readily available on the
internet and genetic material from one of the many companies that
sell made-to-order DNA.
Alistair Hay, a toxicologist from Leeds University, said synthetic
biology offered an opportunity to improve human health by, for
example, allowing scientists to create DNA sequences that may help
produce vaccines.
Jo Husbands, an arms control specialist at the US Academies of
Science, said those working in synthetic biology had scared
themselves with what the technology was capable of, and were
already taking steps to safeguard their work.
"It's a fascinating case of a scientific community and people doing
this research trying to minimise the risk," she said.
Synthetic biology has been added to the agenda of the Biological
Weapons Convention review, but it is unlikely to prompt an
amendment to the treaty. The convention has been a source of
international disagreement ever since its adoption in 1972. Unlike
non-proliferation agreements on chemical and nuclear weapons, the
BWC does not include a policing or enforcement function to tackle
non-compliance.
Al-Qaeda is determined to acquire the technology to carry out a
nuclear attack on the West, a senior Foreign Office official said
yesterday.
The official warned that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network was
trawling the world for the materials and know-how to mount an
attack using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
Deadly organisms
EBOLA: One of the most deadly viruses known to man, ebola causes
massive internal bleeding, which spills out through the orifices.
Nine out of ten people die within ten days.
SMALLPOX: Highly contagious with 30 per cent mortality rate,
smallpox exists only in labs in the US and Russia. Soviet
scientists tried to combine it with ebola into a "doomsday"
bug.
MARBURG VIRUS: Almost identical to ebola, it causes haemorrhagic
fever and internal bleeding for which there is no effective
treatment. It has a fatality rate of about 30 per cent.
ANTHRAX: A bacteria that is fatal without antibiotic treatment.
It becomes "weaponised" when in aerosol form. Used in a terrorist
mail attack in the US in 2001, killing five.
INFLUENZA: Concerns were raised earlier this year when scientists
re-created a strand from the deadly Spanish flu outbreak of 1919,
which killed more in total than the First World War.
SALMONELLA: Although not the most lethal virus, this tummy-bug
was used in the first bioterrorism attack, in Oregon in 1984, when
751 people were infected by tainted salads. All survived.