Life Sciences and Related Fields Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention (2011) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 11-24
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From page 11... ...
relevant to the convention. The workshop provided an opportunity to discuss the implications of recent developments in S&T in diverse fields such as immunology, neuroscience, synthetic biology, and drug and gene delivery mechanisms that are potentially relevant to new or more deadly biological weapons or bioterrorism, as well as for detection, diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines that affect potential prevention and response to biological attacks.
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The 2.5-day meeting combined plenary sessions featuring talks by researchers about current developments across a range of S&T areas and smaller discussion groups to allow for more in-depth exploration of the implications of these developments for the BWC. Toward the end of the workshop the participants also discussed the impact of improved communication technologies on scientific collaboration and examined options for providing input from the scientific community to the BWC on a more structured and sustained basis.
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A factual summary of the plenary workshop presentations was published previously (NRC, 2011c) and presented at the meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the Seventh Review Conference in April.4 Given the vast and growing diversity of research in the life sciences and other relevant areas of S&T, the workshop and this report necessarily represents a selection and a snapshot of developments that may be relevant to the future of the BWC.
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Reservations filed by some States Parties meant that, for them, the Protocol became in effect a no-first-use undertaking. 6 "The Fourth and Sixth Review Conferences reaffirmed that the use by States Parties, in any way and under any circumstances, of microbial or other biological agents or toxins, that is not consistent with prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes, is effectively a violation of Article I [VI.I.3, IV.I.3]
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In addition, for the past decade the BWC has carried out a unique set of activities. After efforts to negotiate a protocol to provide verification of treaty compliance failed in 2001, the States Parties agreed in 2002 to a series of annual meetings before the next full treaty review conference in 2006.
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Discussions of S&T developments take place primarily as part of the preparations for the review conferences; for example, some States Parties contribute formal background papers related to S&T and the United Nations (UN) secretariat unit assigned to support the treaty may offer other papers and material as well.
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One of their contributions has been a series of workshops designed to provide independent input into the treaty review conferences for the BWC and CWC. 1.3.1 The First IUPAC-OPCW Workshop (2002)
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In anticipation of the Sixth BWC Review Conference, a number of scientific organizations decided to use the model from the IUPAC workshop to undertake an effort to provide independent input. The international 12See, for example, Pearson and Magee (2002)
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. 15 Topics included the potential to identify previously uncultured microorganisms using metagenomics approaches; efforts to understand gene regulation, protein synthesis, and biological pathways using transcriptomics, proteomics, bioinfomatics, and systems biology; the potential of synthetic biology to engineer microorganisms with designed properties; and the possibility of employing genetic targeting.
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This potential extends beyond the security implications addressed in this report to include other effects on human, plant, and animal health, the environment, the economy, and the safety of those conducting scientific and technical work. With regard to security, as depicted in Figure 1.1, there is a hierarchy of increasingly advanced life sciences techniques, beginning with basic laboratory skills and moving toward sophisticated areas of
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M laboratorium Large scale purification Large purification Preparation of large scale Production of large scale bio-weapons therapeutics Bioreactors Bioreactors a Bioinformatics Bioinformatics Modified viruses, Enhancing virulence bacteria, plant and High throughput sequencing and High throughput sequencing and of existing pathogens animal cells synthesis synthesis Monoclonal antibodies, Biological toxins, Genomics and proteomics Genomics and proteomics biologics iRNA Molecular biology skills biology skills Drugs as weapons, Synthetic chemistry skills Synthetic chemistry skills Drugs, medicines toxins Basic laboratory skills laboratory skills FIGURE 1.1 Dual use in the life sciences.
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From page 22... ...
At the next level of the pyramid, the growth of high throughput sequencing and synthesis and the analysis of the massive amount of data generated by these technologies using bioinformatics tools have formed the basis for more sophisticated biological modification. Life sciences production technologies such as bioreactors also have dual uses -- enabling the large-scale production either of therapeutics or of materials for biological weapons in ways that can be hard to detect.
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The potential dual use of life sciences knowledge, tools, and techniques reinforces the need for the scientific community to be aware of the norms of responsible and appropriate scientific conduct, as well as international and national legal requirements. Over the past decade, national and international scientific organizations having become increasingly engaged in issues related to the responsibilities of the scientific community to help reduce the risks of misuse of life sciences research (Bowman et al., 2011; IAP, 2005; NRC, 2004, 2006a, 2009a,c, 2011a; OECD, 2004; Royal Society and Wellcome Trust, 2004; WHO, 2005, 2007a)
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Again reflecting the committee's charge -- and the pattern successfully established in the other trends workshops -- the report considers the state of life sciences research but does not make recommendations for national or international policy in response to the identified findings and conclusions.
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