Not really difficult at all... They already gentically engineer bacteria to create all kinds of proteins (insulin for example). E. coli (a relatively harmless bacteria found in everyone's large intestines) can be engineered to make tons of useful (and some not so useful) things. These are the buggers to look out for.
Same can be done with viruses. Its just a matter of splicing in the DNA sequence for the protein that you want to have created and selecting for those populations that excel at creating the inserted sequence of genes... Scary how easy it really is. I used to use E. coli to create viral fragments for purification so I could create antibodies to detect the viruses in tissue sections.... Makes you think... Jeff ----- Original Message ----- From: "Hatton Humphrey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 1:25 PM Subject: Re: Rats... Going a little sci-fi with this question, but what are the chances of someone taking something "mostly harmless" and turning it into a guaranteed killer? Hatton Jeff Garza wrote: >The bacteria that causes the bubonic plague (Yersinia pestis) is really >easily attainable and can very easily be cultured from the wild by anyone >with microbiological skills. Hell, it's endemic where I live (Southwest >Deserts Arizona). Even in a controlled setting, this bacteria only carries >a biohazard threat level of 2. >http://www.safety.vanderbilt.edu/pdf/BSL2_Checklist_Narrative.PDF > >Note: You do not HAVE to secure these agents. It is, however, recommended >that access be controlled. Reasonable safeguards should be taken... Armed >guards are not reasonable for a bacteria like this. > >There are hundreds of different bacteria that can be used in a biological >attack scenario. Plague is the least of our worries... I'll not go into >details about what those agents are. but let me assure you plague is not >one of them. > >Ho hum... > >Jeff > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
