NEWS OF THE WEEK SCIENCE
POLICY
BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH REVIEWS NRC panel recommends scrutiny of bioterror potential of planned R&D
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LANNED EXPERIMENTS I N
biotechnology—whether paid for by industry, government, or another funding source—should be reviewed to determine if the results could aid terrorists. That's one of the chief recommendations of a National Research Council (NRC) committee that has studied how to safeguard life sciences research. The NRC committee presented its entire proposal at a news briefing last week in Washington, D.C. Committee members said they hope to build on existing biotechnology researchreview frameworks to address national security concerns. The full report is available at http://na tional-academies.org. "What is sorely needed is a system that allows research to proceed unimpeded while it identifies research that has great potential for misuse," said committee Chair Gerald R. Fink, a researcher at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research and a professor of genetics at MIT. There would be several possible outcomes of a review, said NRC panel member Ronald M. Atlas, a professor of biology and graduate dean at the University of Louisville. Reviewers might recommend that the research not be done, that the research be moved to a classified environment, or that the research continue. NRC panel members emphasized that their proposed system is voluntary, one that builds on scientists, sense of collegiality and common interest. It augments the recombinant DNA research review system for biosafety that has been in place in the U.S. since HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
it was crafted in the mid-1970s. That framework provides reviewfirstat the institutional level and then, if a determination cannot be made, by NIH's Recombinant DNAAdvisory Committee (RAC). The NRC panel has recommended that NIH add the NIH director and an independent National Science Advisory Board for Biodefense as the highest levels of research review concerning bioterror potential. According to the NRC panel, biotechnology research reviews should now also consider whether experiments demonstrate how to render human or animal vaccines ineffective; confer resistance to antibiotics or antiviral agents for humans, animals, or crops; enhance the virulence of human, animal, or plant pathogens or make nonpathogens virulent; increase the transmissibility of
pathogens; alter the host range of pathogens; enable the evasion of diagnostic or detection methods; or enable the weaponization of biological agents or toxins. At the publication stage, the NRC panel recommends "relying on self-governance by scientists and scientific journals.,, "These {NRC panel] recommendations have merit," says Anthony S. Fauci, director of NIH's National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases. He tells C&EN that he and Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson were briefed last week at the White House and that Thompson has promised that he
