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Microbiologists take center stage 10
March 2003 11:15 GMT
by Joel N. Shurkin  Baltimore, Maryland - Intense public attention and the possible
responsibility for the fate of millions - not to mention an "exceptional
largesse" in funding - doesn't happen to a research field very often, but the
time has come for microbiology.
More than 700 researchers from 27 countries showed up here at the first ever meeting on biodefense called by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) to check out the new world order. They came from as far away as Perth, Australia and Vladivostok in Siberia. Almost all were basic scientists confronting a challenge to the way they worked. "This is a relatively small community," said Gail Cassell, ASM program chair and vice president of Scientific Affairs at Eli Lilly, who was clearly pleased at the turnout. "We didn't know what to expect when we asked for abstracts." She got 250. Only two prominent microbiologists sent their regrets. The purpose of the meeting was to assure the "right quality of research" on the right agenda, said ASM president Ronald Atlas of the University of Louisville. The new intense relevance was thrust on the researchers in particular by the anthrax attack that followed 9/11. The terrorist attacks also produced a massive increase in US research funding, with the budget for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) alone soaring to nearly $1.5 billion. Total expenditures will reach almost $6 billion in fiscal year 2003. Anthony S. Fauci, director of NIAID, said the new situation is forcing microbiologists into an "expanded paradigm." The new demands will not mean a diminution in the importance of basic research but rather some readjustment of how basic scientists work. In the past, says Fauci, basic researchers would find and publish something interesting and then move on to the next new thing. Now, they need to pay attention to how that interesting finding might be put to work - perhaps with the help of industry - all for the common defense. He called it translational research. He said it was crucial that researchers find a balance between investigating interesting ideas and programmatic direction. "We can't be completely free-floating," he said. Fauci listed the present "gaps" in science's ability to defend against biological attacks, particularly the CDC Category A agents, such as smallpox, plague and anthrax. In basic science, he listed the study of pathogens, the immune-host response, the workings of the innate and adaptive immune systems and the genomic sequencing of pathogenic agents as challenges. In the area of countermeasures, research requirements include the availability and stockpiling of safe and effective vaccines that can protect everyone, not just the military and first-responders, antiviral agents, and diagnostic techniques. The funding will also provide improved and expanded research resources including new Biosafety Level 3 and 4 labs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Fort Detrick, and at a facility in Montana. NIH is also organizing regional centers around the US. Another issue confronting the researchers, largely pushed by Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg, was the question of freedom of information. ASM president Atlas, who is editor of the ASM journal, said that despite press reports, journals such as Science and Nature were not engaging in self-censorship when they jointly agreed to a plan to restrict publication of information potentially useful to terrorists. The editors stated they would not permit the deletion of details if that deletion undermined science. "I cannot think of a more anti-self-censorship statement than that," he said. The ASM publications also will abide by the agreement. "There could be information that would be dangerous - cookbook type information - where an editor might look at this and say this is more dangerous than the benefits of this information being out there. At which point - and this would be very rare - he would work with the authors to modify without undermining science, or as a last resort, might refuse to publish it, acting as an editor, not as a censor." Atlas says he does not see why an editor should be forced to publish information he thinks is potentially dangerous for an abstract principle. Unlike nuclear weapons, which require considerable technical knowledge and resources, high school students at home can produce pathogens, says Lederberg. The science goes back to Pasteur and Koch more than 100 years ago, he adds. "The rest are details." |
