[Article] 'Hand-built' virus seen as step towards life form

Victor

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'Hand-built' virus seen as step towards life form
From:ireland.com
Friday, 14th November, 2003

US: Scientists in the US have created artificial "life" in the laboratory, a development that will frighten many who fear the runaway use of the genetic technologies.

The hand-built virus was able to infect and kill bacteria, proof that it had the capabilities of the original virus.

The work was led by Dr Craig Venter, the private enterprise scientist who battled against publicly funded researchers in the race to be first to record the entire human genetic blueprint.

Four years ago he famously announced to the world his intention to create a unique, self-replicating cellular life form.

The creation of a virus was the first step in achieving this goal, Dr Venter stated in a research paper published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the US.

"The broader implications of the creation of life in the laboratory can now be considered as a realistic possibility," Dr Venter wrote in his research paper.

Working from scratch, the team built a small virus by copying out its 5,386-element genetic sequence step by step using a new technique.

The group worked from a pre-existing genetic blueprint for the virus, bacteriophage PhiX174, which in effect gave them a "recipe" for its production. This organism attacks bacteria but has no effect on humans, plants or animals.

Proof of their success was shown by the subsequent infection of E.coli bacteria by the virus. The infection rate of the constructed virus was lower than that of the natural virus, but it was still able to kill, the researchers pointed out.

While it stands as an undoubted technological achievement, the work will also disturb an already sceptical public who feel that this technology is galloping too far ahead of legislative and ethical controls.

The work raised important safety issues, according to Prof Martin Clynes, director of the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at Dublin City University.

There was nothing particularly dramatic about the technology itself, he said, given that researchers had been building genes in this way for years.

"A virus is self-replicating. There would need to be some sort of risk assessment and how it is to be contained," he added.

"The only worry I would have about it is because \ has patented this, and he is talking about it as a new life form. You shouldn't patent life forms," said Dr Siobhán O'Sullivan, scientific director of the Irish Council for Bioethics.

"It doesn't sound novel to me. It sounds more like a gimmick," said Prof Greg Atkins, head of virus research group at the Moyle Institute in Trinity College Dublin.

Sarky

Blimey. Interesting. Any idea why it's not as effective as a "natural" virus? Perhaps they didn't get the shape right? *shrugs*

This should get a lot of religious fundamentalists really angry...

DriftingRain

Good Lord I live inthe US and haven't even heard about this.
/me goes to google to find more, more, more!!!!!

GuanYin

I dunno, as interesting as viruses are, there is an giant step up from viruses to a prokaryotic cell.

People have been using GM viruses for years and I don't think that its as big a deal as the reporter or indeed the presenting author is making out.

Serbian

The virus they are talking about here isn't exactly genetically modified. It is an exact replica of the existing virus. The only difference is they built this virus from nothing. It may not be a revelation but I believe it is something that hasn't been done before.

GuanYin

I never said it had been done before, but I don't think its a giant step from existing technologies. The article sets a tone that suggests otherwise.

I mean, I've done several experiments this week that have never been done before but it doesn't mean I'm going to get the Nobel prize, at least not this year anyway......

Victor

Originally posted by syke
I never said it had been done before, but I don't think its a giant step from existing technologies. The article sets a tone that suggests otherwise.

However it sets the precedent to making a designer virus from the ground up, as opposed to having to modify existing "defective" ones (i.e. ones that behave normally and not as maliciously as you want).

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by Victor
Help!

The group worked from a pre-existing genetic blueprint for the virus, bacteriophage PhiX174, which in effect gave them a "recipe" for its production. This organism attacks bacteria but has no effect on humans, plants or animals...

The work raised important safety issues, according to Prof Martin Clynes, director of the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at Dublin City University.

One one level I'm not sure what all the fuss is about - splicing genes in to phage is one of the most common ways of changing the genome of bacteria cf. shotgun cloning. Also DNA testing involves taking a tiny amount of DNA and making billions of exact copies of it. You could buy machines to make DNA sequences back in the late 80's, since they only made small segnemts you just made sure to put an overlap at each end - DNA sticks to itself if parts of the strands are mirror images - you then use nucleases to fill in the gaps.. - so nothing new in the technology.

On the other level it's scary - the Goal.
organisms on this planet have had 5 billion years to get used to each other and natural checks and balances have formed (eg. most parasites / predators do not kill off their prey) Putting a new virus into this mix could have unpredictable restults - it the low probablility, high impact corner of risk assesment.

A long time ago there was research into incorporating cellulase into E.Coli (the most common lab bacteria - with a few highly publicixed exceptions grenerally regarded as safe) However, this little guy is the main bacteria in the human gut and if it could digest cellulose then all the fibre you ate would... a worst case scenario is everyone having diarrea (sp) - so bad you would not be able to adsorb nutrients and if you wanted to live you'd have to eat dirt or chalk... If the risk was only a billion to one then more than one billion could die...

Can't argue with Matin on this one.