Top > JDR > Bioweapons and Dual-Use Research of Concern

single-dr.php

JDR Vol.8 No.4 pp. 654-666
(2013)
doi: 10.20965/jdr.2013.p0654

Review:

Views over last 60 days: 550

Bioweapons and Dual-Use Research of Concern

Nariyoshi Shinomiya*, Masamichi Minehata**, and Malcolm Dando***

*Department of Integrative Physiology and Bio-Nano Medicine, National Defense Medical College, 3-2 Namiki, Tokorozawa, Saitama 359-8513, Japan

**Bradford Disarmament Research Centre, University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD7 1DP, UK

***Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD7 1DP, UK

Received:
March 28, 2013
Accepted:
May 7, 2013
Published:
August 1, 2013
Creative Commons License
Keywords:
bioweapon, Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), dual-use research of concern (DURC), biotechnology/recombinant DNA technology, responsibility of scientists
Abstract
The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) strictly prohibits State Parties from developing, producing, stockpiling or otherwise acquiring or retaining microbial and other biological agents that have no justification for peaceful purposes. At the time the convention was concluded, progress in the life sciences received little attention. Recent technological advances, especially in biotechnology, have brought attention, however, to the issue of dual-use research of concern (DURC). Dual-use research is defined as biological research with a legitimate scientific purpose that may, if misused, pose a biological threat to public health and/or national security. The most important and burdensome point of DURC is that we cannot escape the dual-use dilemma existing in all research activities. The DURC concept is an old but in a sense a new issue to be dealt with. Here we focus on the bioweapons and DURC – a subject that has received attention worldwide. In this review, we start with an overview of the historical development of bioweapons and then discuss their prohibition regimes focusing mainly on the BWC framework. Dramatic progress in biotechnology/recombinant DNA technology around the turn of the century brought a new experimental paradigm and affected the direction in which the life sciences should go. The Fink report and Lemon-Relman report have presented potential options for the healthy development of the life sciences. Exploring several important DURC case studies helps in understanding the nature of the dual-use dilemma more deeply. DURC in the area of the life sciences has been expanding broadly and has reached the neurosciences. Synthetic biology has introduced innovative approaches in creating novel living organisms. The convergence of chemistry and biology has become an inevitable stream in the recent development of the life sciences. Under these circumstances, the responsibility of scientists is becoming increasingly important. To deal appropriately with dual-use issues, risks and benefits must first be evaluated fairly and clearly, which makes the development of DURC evaluation methods an urgent issue. Both top-down approaches such as rules for smoothly processing of research, funding policies, and oversight mechanisms, and bottom-up approaches, i.e., researcher-oriented self-governance need to be mutually harmonized so that the life sciences may be applied more securely. The education of life scientists and the importance of outreach to society are also key means to success.
Cite this article as:
N. Shinomiya, M. Minehata, and M. Dando, “Bioweapons and Dual-Use Research of Concern,” J. Disaster Res., Vol.8 No.4, pp. 654-666, 2013.
Data files:
References
  1. [1] E. Geissler and J. van Courtland Moon, “Biological and Toxin Weapons Research, Development and Use from the Middle Ages to 1945,” Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2001.
  2. [2] C. Redmond, M. J. Pearce, R. J. Manchee, and B. P. Berdal, “Deadly relic of the Great War,” Nature, Vol.393, pp. 747-748, 1998.
  3. [3] M. Wheelis, M. L. Rózsa, and M. R. Dando, “Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons since 1945,” Harvard University Press (Massachusetts), 496, 2006.
  4. [4] “USAMRIID’s Medical management of biological casualties handbook,” 7th edition, Dembek Z. F., Ed, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (Fort Detrick), 2011.
  5. [5] K. Alibek and S. Handelman, “Biohazard: The chilling True Story of the largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World-Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran it,” Delta (New York), 1999.
  6. [6] M. Leitenberg and R. A. Zilinskas, “The Soviet Biological Weapons Program: A History,” Harvard University Press (Massachusetts), 2012.
  7. [7] M. Dando, “Bioterror and Biowarfare,” Oneworld (Oxford), 2006.
  8. [8] S. Gould, “Project Coast: Apartheid’s Chemical and Biological Warfare Program,” United Nations Disarmament Research (Geneva), 2002.
  9. [9] M. Meselson, J. Guillemin, M. Hugh-Jones, A. Langmuir, I. Popova, A. Shelokov, and O. Yampolskaya, “The Sverdlovsk anthrax outbreak of 1979,” Science, Vol.266, pp. 1202-1208, 1994.
  10. [10] N. Sims, “The Evolution of Biological Disarmament,” Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2001.
  11. [11] M. Meselson, “The Problem of Biological Weapons,” Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, 2000.
  12. [12] V. M. Borzenkov, A. P. Pomerantsev, and I. P. Ashmarin, “The additive synthesis of a regulatory peptide in vivo: the administration of a vaccinal Francisella tularensis strain that produces beta-endorphin,” Biull Eksp Biol Med, Vol.116, pp. 151-153, 1993.
  13. [13] http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/agentlist-category.asp [accessed March 28, 2013]
  14. [14] A. P. Pomerantsev, N. A. Staritsin, V.Mockov Yu, and L. I. Marinin, “Expression of cereolysine AB genes in Bacillus anthracis vaccine strain ensures protection against experimental hemolytic anthrax infection,” Vaccine, Vol.15, pp. 1846-1850, 1997.
  15. [15] R. J. Jackson, A. J. Ramsay, C. D. Christensen, S. Beaton, D. F. Hall, and I. A. Ramshaw, “Expression of mouse interleukin-4 by a recombinant ectromelia virus suppresses cytolytic lymphocyte responses and overcomes genetic resistance to mousepox,” J. Virol., Vol.75, pp. 1205-1210, 2001.
  16. [16] R. Nowak, “Disaster in the making,” New Scientist, 2001.
  17. [17] Committee on Research Standards and Practices to Prevent the Destructive Application of Biotechnology NRC, “Biotechnology Research in an Age of Terrorism,” The National Academies Press (Washington D.C.), 2004.
  18. [18] J. Cello, A. V. Paul, and E. Wimmer, “Chemical synthesis of poliovirus cDNA: generation of infectious virus in the absence of natural template,” Science, Vol.297, pp. 1016-1018, 2002.
  19. [19] H. O. Smith, C. A. Hutchison, 3rd, C. Pfannkoch, and J. C. Venter, “Generating a synthetic genome by whole genome assembly: phiX174 bacteriophage from synthetic oligonucleotides,” Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, Vol.100, pp. 15440-15445, 2003.
  20. [20] D. G. Gibson, G. A. Benders, C. Andrews-Pfannkoch, E. A. Denisova, H. Baden-Tillson, J. Zaveri, T. B. Stockwell, A. Brownley, D. W. Thomas, M. A. Algire, C. Merryman, L. Young, V. N. Noskov, J. I. Glass, J. C. Venter, C. A. Hutchison, 3rd, and H. O. Smith, “Complete chemical synthesis, assembly, and cloning of a Mycoplasma genitalium genome,” Science, Vol.319, pp. 1215-1220, 2008.
  21. [21] D. G. Gibson, J. I. Glass, C. Lartigue, V. N. Noskov, R. Y. Chuang, M. A. Algire, G. A. Benders, M. G. Montague, L. Ma, M. M. Moodie, C. Merryman, S. Vashee, R. Krishnakumar, N. Assad-Garcia, C. Andrews-Pfannkoch, E. A. Denisova, L. Young, Z. Q. Qi, T. H. Segall-Shapiro, C. H. Calvey, P. P. Parmar, C. A. Hutchison, 3rd, H. O. Smith, and J. C. Venter, “Creation of a bacterial cell controlled by a chemically synthesized genome,” Science, Vol.329, pp. 52-56, 2010.
  22. [22] T. M. Tumpey, C. F. Basler, P. V. Aguilar, H. Zeng, A. Solorzano, D. E. Swayne, N. J. Cox, J. M. Katz, J. K. Taubenberger, P. Palese, and A. Garcia-Sastre, “Characterization of the reconstructed 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic virus,” Science, Vol.310, pp. 77-80, 2005.
  23. [23] D. Kobasa, A. Takada, K. Shinya, M. Hatta, P. Halfmann, S. Theriault, H. Suzuki, H. Nishimura, K. Mitamura, N. Sugaya, T. Usui, T. Murata, Y. Maeda, S. Watanabe, M. Suresh, T. Suzuki, Y. Suzuki, H. Feldmann, and Y. Kawaoka, “Enhanced virulence of influenza A viruses with the haemagglutinin of the 1918 pandemic virus,” Nature, Vol.431, pp. 703-707, 2004.
  24. [24] R. A. Fouchier, A. Garcia-Sastre, and Y. Kawaoka, “Pause on avian flu transmission studies,” Nature, Vol.481, p. 443, 2012.
  25. [25] S. Herfst, E. J. Schrauwen, M. Linster, S. Chutinimitkul, E. de Wit, V. J. Munster, E. M. Sorrell, T. M. Bestebroer, D. F. Burke, D. J. Smith, G. F. Rimmelzwaan, A. D. Osterhaus, and R. A. Fouchier, “Airborne transmission of influenza A/H5N1 virus between ferrets,” Science, Vol.336, pp. 1534-1541, 2012.
  26. [26] M. Imai, T. Watanabe, M. Hatta, S. C. Das, M. Ozawa, K. Shinya, G. Zhong, A. Hanson, H. Katsura, S. Watanabe, C. Li, E. Kawakami, S. Yamada, M. Kiso, Y. Suzuki, E. A. Maher, G. Neumann, and Y. Kawaoka, “Experimental adaptation of an influenza H5 HA confers respiratory droplet transmission to a reassortant H5 HA/H1N1 virus in ferrets,” Nature, Vol.486, pp. 420-428, 2012.
  27. [27] R. A. Fouchier, A. Garcia-Sastre, and Y. Kawaoka, “H5N1 virus: Transmission studies resume for avian flu,” Nature, Vol.493, p. 609, 2013.
  28. [28] R. A. Fouchier, A. Garcia-Sastre, Y. Kawaoka, W. S. Barclay, N. M. Bouvier, I. H. Brown, I. Capua, H. Chen, R. W. Compans, R. B. Couch, N. J. Cox, P. C. Doherty, R. O. Donis, H. Feldmann, Y. Guan, J.M. Katz, O. I. Kiselev, H. D. Klenk, G. Kobinger, J. Liu, X. Liu, A. Lowen, T. C. Mettenleiter, A. D. Osterhaus, P. Palese, J. S. Peiris, D. R. Perez, J. A. Richt, S. Schultz-Cherry, J. Steel, K. Subbarao, D. E. Swayne, T. Takimoto, M. Tashiro, J. K. Taubenberger, P. G. Thomas, R. A. Tripp, T. M. Tumpey, R. J. Webby, and R. G. Webster, “Transmission studies resume for avian flu,” Science, Vol.339, pp. 520-521, 2013.
  29. [29] A. P. Patterson, L. A. Tabak, A. S. Fauci, F. S. Collins, and S. Howard, “Research funding. A framework for decisions about research with HPAI H5N1 viruses,” Science, Vol.339, pp. 1036-1037, 2013.
  30. [30] University of Bradford, “Lecture 17, Weapons Targeted at Nervous System,” Bradford, 2013, Available from:
    http://www.brad.ac.uk/bioethics/educationalmoduleresource/ [accessed March 28, 2013]
  31. [31] L. R. Hochberg, M. D. Serruya, G. M. Friehs, J. A. Mukand, M. Saleh, A. H. Caplan, A. Branner, D. Chen, R. D. Penn, and J. P. Donoghue, “Neuronal ensemble control of prosthetic devices by a human with tetraplegia,” Nature, Vol.442, pp. 164-171, 2006.
  32. [32] K. Smallwood, R. Trapp, R. Mathews, B. Schmidt, and L. K. Sydnes, “Impact of scientific developments on the chemical weapons convention (IUPAC Technical Report),” Pure Appl Chem, 2012.
  33. [33] National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, “Proposed Framework for the Oversight of Dual Use Life Sciences Research: Strategies for Minimizing the Potential Misuse of Research Information,” 2007.
  34. [34] Committee on Advances in Technology and the Prevention of Their Application to Next Generation Biowarfare Threats, Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, “Globalization, Biosecurity, and the Future of the Life Sciences,” National Academies Press, 2006.
  35. [35] G. Mancini and J. Revill, “Biosecurity Education for the Next Generation of Life Scientists,” Fostering the Biosecurity Norm; Como, Italy, 2008.
  36. [36] M. Minehata and N. Shinomiya, “PART 2: NATIONAL EXPERIENCES, Chapter 5: Japan: Obstacles, Lessons and Future,” B. Rappert, Ed., Education and Ethics in the Life Sciences Strengthening the Prohibition of Biological Weapons, ANU E Press, Canberra, pp. 93-114, 2010.
  37. [37] University of Bradford, “Educational Module Resources (EMR),” Bradford, 2013, http://www.brad.ac.uk/bioethics/educationalmoduleresource/ [accessed March 28, 2013]
  38. [38] http://virtualbiosecuritycenter.org/ [accessed March 28, 2013]
  39. [39] http://www.brad.ac.uk/bioethics/trainthetrainer/ [accessed March 28, 2013]

Creative Commons License  This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationa License.

*This site is desgined based on HTML5 and CSS3 for modern browsers, e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera.

Last updated on Oct. 01, 2024