More intensive, collaborative effort needed to prepare for bioterrorism

A decade ago the concept of terrorism felt distant in the United States, but 9/11 changed all that. Still, most Americans think of terrorist attacks as something big and spectacular: Car bombs, airplane hijackings, and atomic blasts. Rae Lyn Burke, senior director at the Center of Excellence for Infectious Disease and Biodefense at Menlo Park, California-based SRI, says that some of the deadliest weapons for terrorists might be so tiny that the human eye cannot even see them. Bioterrorism can be quietly insidious. With preparation, the worst biological agents could spread through air, water, and food supplies. Days might pass while germs spread rampantly without anyone knowing. Just six years ago attackers delivered anthrax as a powder in letters sent through the U.S. mail. This was not the first time that humans manipulated microbials and viruses with harmful intent. In the past, smallpox (a virus) and plague (a bacterium) have also been agents for biological warfare.

Burke writes that the nature of these miniature biological powerhouses has led the U.S. government to believe there is an increased need for preparedness and surveillance. Preparations are well under way to counter a biological attack. Much is on the horizon to hasten the development of counteragents using new technologies such as the breeding of transgenic rabbits to make human polyclonal antibodies and finding new uses for old antibiotics. The DoD hopes to decrease the spread of viruses and deadly bacteria by leveraging accelerated manufacturing techniques that rapidly produce huge quantities of vaccines and antibodies. The goal is to create an accelerated manufacturing platform that can produce as many as three million doses in twelve weeks. The ability to respond rapidly and with such large quantities represents an enormous technological advance for society.

Burke concludes her detaild discussion by saying that

…medical countermeasures to combat biological weaponry will rely on the ability of scientists to develop potent vaccines and therapeutics that have broad activity and to do so rapidly. Technology that uses alternatives to mammalian cells to replicate proteins quickly, such as transgenic rabbits and fungal cells, will help make rapid production a reality. So will the repurposing of licensed drugs for which scientists already have a great deal of information.

Collaboration between organizations will help ensure broad capability and shared resources, but the hand-off between them must be seamless. Watchfulness and preparedness will be important if bioterrorism becomes increasingly attractive as a tool for terrorists.