Trends in Science and Technology Relevant to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Summary of an International Workshop (2011) / Chapter Skim
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The Beijing workshop reflected the continuing engagement by national academies, international scientific organizations, and individual scientists and engineers in considering the biosecurity implications of developments in the life sciences and assessing trends in science and technology (S&T) relevant to nonproliferation.1 The workshop was planned by an international committee appointed by the NRC and convened in collaboration with IAP – The Global Network of Science Academies, the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB)
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The report will also explore potential implications for the Biological Weapons Convention as an independent input from the scientific community to the treaty's 7th review conference in 2011. The report would not make recommendations about actions to address any of the potential implications.
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Roderick Flower, chair of the Committee on Trends in Science and Technology Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention: An International Workshop, welcomed participants to the meeting and noted that the review conferences of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention have been charged with taking into account new developments in science and technology. Accordingly, Dr.
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The Biological Weapons Convention: A Brief Overview – Piers Millett, BWC Implementation Support Unit, United Nations Dr. Piers Millet of the BWC Implementation Support Unit opened his remarks by reviewing the basic provisions of the BWC and its modest organizational resources (a staff of three)
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S&T reviews are undertaken by the States Parties of the different agreements, working through international treaty organisations (if they exist) as well as formal treaty mechanisms such as review conferences.
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, and CAS participation in international workshops and roundtables. Although he noted challenges such as a lack of awareness about the dual-use potential of scientific research among members of the life sciences community, he observed that scientists in China were actively engaged in discussing biosecurity issues and considering what oversight measures might be appropriate to manage potential risks.
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This technology is advancing rapidly -- whereas the Human Genome Project cost hundreds of millions of dollars or more and took a great deal of time, it is now possible to sequence a genome in a week for thousands of dollars -- resulting in an explosion of genome data.6 By means of examples, he pointed to the international 1000 genomes project, which involves looking at 2500 human genomes for genetic variation, and the 1000 plant and animal genomes reference project conducted by BGI China.7 Dr. de Villiers went on to outline how an explosion in computing power, in combination with lowered costs for computers and greater availability of this technology across the globe, is enhancing bioinformatics.
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Dr. de Villiers defined metagenomics as "the sequencing and analysis of DNA of organisms recovered from an environment, without the need for culturing them, using next generation sequencing technologies" and suggested that metagenomics could play an important role in global disease tracking as it enables researchers to identify and track what exists and where pathogen reservoirs are located.
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Pitt suggested that the number of numerical parameters is one of the main limits to advances in systems biology, particularly given that biological data reduction is slow and expensive and computational power is limited because of scale. A further challenge identified by Dr.
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On the global stage, Dr. Dhar suggested that in the future we were going to see arrival of faster and cheaper DNA synthesis technologies and cited the work of Robert Carlson, who recently predicted rapid fall in the cost of long DNA synthesis (Carlson, 2009)
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10 As described in the cited article, Dr. Venter's group chemically synthesized the genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides based on the genetic sequence of the naturally occurring organism with the addition of certain distinguishing chemical "watermarks" and inserted this synthesized genome into a recipient cell of the related bacterium Mycoplasma capricolum, from which the natural genetic material had been removed.
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He noted that multiple classes of polypeptides may be produced in such bioreactors, including growth factors, hormones, enzymes, immunoglobulins, and others.
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Molecular pharming in plants has already produced a number of important monoclonal antibodies, including antibodies directed against HIV, rabies virus, and Streptococcus mutans, and it was suggested that such antibodies can potentially be mass produced for a low cost (Ma et al., 2003; De Muynck et al., 2010)
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Dr. Eberwine noted that high-throughput sequencing has significantly advanced neuroscience, and suggested that next generation sequencing would enable researchers to achieve a level of 45 billion nucleotides per week.
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Discussion The open discussion following the presentations included additional discussion of the limits and advantages of using plant and animal bio-production systems. For example, issues that were noted by participants included the ability of plants to produce vaccine proteins and monoclonal antibodies, or to be engineered to serve as biosensors, which may have implications for issues of relevance to the BWC in areas such as detection and countermeasures development.
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In humans, particles with an aerodynamic diameter of 10-30 micrometers generally deposit in the mouth and nose, particles of 2-10 micrometers deposit in the trachea and bronchi, and particles of less than 2 micrometers reach the alveoli. Particular areas of the respiratory tract can thus be targeted by exposure to differently sized particles, while the tissue susceptibility of different respiratory tract regions to a particular disease agent is also likely to vary.
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. She also described glucose-sensitive systems in which insulin is released as glucose concentration rises and the free glucose disrupts polymer cross-linking.
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These non-viral systems can help overcome some of the safety, manufacturing and immunogenicity issues associated with viral vectors, although transfection efficiency from non-viral systems remains lower than from viral delivery systems. Targeted delivery may also be employed to deliver bioregulatory molecules such as fentanyl (Wax et al., 2003)
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Therefore, pressure for successful implementation of these programs would be most effective coming from the top as well as from the bottom. Discussion Issues raised during the discussion session included the relative barriers to misuse provided by the importance of tacit knowledge in the application of fields such as aerobiology, and the potential window of opportunity, during the current phase of development of these technologies, for the community to consider effectively their potential implications before the relevant knowledge and skills became more widely available.
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Pitt predicted that significant advances would be made towards personalized medicine. Anticipated technological developments to support this include the development of multiplex protein arrays and improved analysis methods.
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Currently, the analyses used for microbial forensics are very context and situation dependent. There are a large number of pathogens that can negatively affect human, animal, and plant health, and for the vast majority, the appropriate method for forensic analysis has not been worked out or validated.
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Murch suggested the development of a global, cooperative network in support of biosecurity and the development of a strategy within the BWC framework that could: Identify "grand science challenges" Establish standards/guidelines for collection, preservation, analysis and reporting and interpretation of results for organisms, toxins and sample types Accept quality management standards Provide standardized introductory and advanced training, personnel certification protocols for voluntary or selected participants Establish one or more accredited UN-authorized microbial forensics laboratories based on international quality management standards, and modus operandi to include transparency Establish accepted sample sharing, analysis protocols Establish an international microbial forensics repository which leverages existing, related resources, to include specimens which help to describe relevant geotemporal microbial background Develop and validate legal & policy requirements for microbial forensics capabilities that support UN -- sponsored investigations, and then criteria and guidelines for use of science in UN actions Trends in Biosensors – Gary Resnick, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA Dr. Gary Resnick began his talk by providing a general overview of biosensors as an analytical device designed for detection, and sometimes identification, of a biological analyte.
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Resnick described the pull of societal needs, such as climate change and increased food production, and the push of new technology opportunities provided by the convergence of diverse technological developments in engineering and biological sciences and the drive for high-throughput bioanalysis systems.
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Kurochkin discussed the development of two analytical methods that lend themselves to use in array-based detectors: electrode-based sensors and silicon nanowire transistors. The electrode-based sensor array can be used for monitoring of neurotoxins and biological species.
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In particular, she noted that the anthrax strain used in the mailings was determined to be the "Ames" strain and that genetic analysis was conducted to identify rare mutations in the mailed spores. Genetic screening was then undertaken to compare these mutations with the genetic sequences of reference anthrax samples from 15 domestic and 3 overseas laboratories.
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DEFENSE AND COUNTERMEASURES Vaccines and Medical Countermeasures – Nancy Connell, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, USA Dr. Nancy Connell opened the session by providing an overview of research developments relevant to vaccines and medical countermeasures.
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Dr. Lin emphasized that having an effective public health system to respond to naturally-occurring disease outbreaks also enables preparedness for a biothreat event and noted that a collaborative effort between disciplines such as epidemiology, laboratory microbiology, and clinical practice in responding to new public health concerns is essential.
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Dr. Lin observed that clinical surveillance with laboratory confirmation can provide relatively real-time information but requires a high volume of testing to achieve accurate statistics.
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Discussion The discussion following the presentations touched on surveillance systems and ways for the public and agricultural health communities to achieve increased lead time in recognizing emerging disease outbreaks. Among the points noted during the discussion was that current surveillance systems largely rely on passive surveillance, rather than on
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COMMUNICATION How the Internet has Changed Scientific Interchanges – James Meadway, The Royal Society, UK James Meadway opened the last session with a discussion of the impact of the internet on scientific interchange, pointing out that there has been a significant increase in the amount of information transferred over the internet. To illustrate this point he highlighted how one site, YouTube, now consumes the same bandwidth as the entire internet in 2000.
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As a result, extensive disease surveillance is necessary and has to be supported by the capacity to respond to new emerging infectious diseases.
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Dr. Taylor referred to the work of Robert Carlson on the doubling and proliferation of computational power (Carlson, 2003; Carlson, 2008)
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Participants were also asked to consider how developments in science and technology could affect biodefense, countermeasures, and mitigation capabilities to address emerging concerns, as well as how future S&T developments might continue to be effectively evaluated in the context of the BWC. The input provided by workshop participants during these sessions informed the discussions of the National Research Council's Committee on Trends in Science and Technology Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention, and will be incorporated more fully in its forthcoming report.
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Emerging Infectious Diseases 16(10)
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Journal of Infectious Diseases 202(9)
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2005. A comprehensive pathway map of epidermal growth factor receptor signaling.
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2010. Laboratory capacity building in Asia for infectious disease research: Experience from the South East Asia Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network (SEAICRN)
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