Half a Mil $ Grant for GM Bugs, Weeds, Houseplants as Weapons

[Guest guest]

http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.asp?storyid=18763

 

Bugs, Weeds, Houseplants Could Join The War On Terror

Last Updated: 5/28/2003 9:00:08 AM

 

When June Medford came up with the idea to use tiny weeds as weapons in the

war against terrorism, she figured most people would call it a joke. But the

federal government didn't laugh.

 

Now, armed with a half million-dollar grant from the Pentagon, the Colorado

State University plant biologist is trying to genetically engineer

Arabidopsis plants to change color rapidly if they sense a biological or

chemical agent.

 

If her plan works, the technology could be used to turn forest evergreens,

backyard shrubs or even pond algae into sentinels for scientists. One day,

everyone in America might be able to use a cheap houseplant as an

early-warning system. It could be the proverbial canary in a coal mine for

the post-Sept.11 age.

 

" A lot of us started thinking differently after 9/11, " Medford says. When

she ran the idea by government officials, " they said, 'Well, let's give it a

try, because if it does work, it could make a huge difference.' "

 

Medford's Fort Collins, Colo., laboratory is among scores across the country

where scientists and entrepreneurs are working on products that could help

the government prevent or respond to another terrorist attack.

 

In Richmond, Va., a biologist is trapping insects such as beetles, crickets,

bees and moths to see whether they could be used as environmental monitors

of biological and chemical agents. In Menlo Park, Calif., researchers are

trying to develop a handheld voice-recognition translator that could help

federal border agents communicate with foreigners seeking to enter the

United States. Outside Chicago, workers at a small research company are

seeking to devise an inexpensive DNA detector that could be used by people

with no background in molecular biology to diagnose, quickly and accurately,

an infectious disease such as smallpox.

 

These efforts sound like they belong in a science-fiction movie. But they're

all real-life, cutting-edge projects, funded partially by government grants.

 

Officials acknowledge that some of the projects won't pan out. But they say

government investment in high-tech research is worthwhile. Some of the

projects could be useful additions to the war on terrorism; others could

revolutionize the way officials protect the nation from attack. (Related

video: New weapons in war against terror)

 

Most of the projects now are funded through the Defense Department. But

after tightening security at the nation's borders and airports, the

Department of Homeland Security is getting involved. The department has $130

million this year to spend on projects it deems worthy.

 

" We aim to attract the very best minds from the private sector and the

academic community and get them working on high-stakes, high-payoff

projects, " Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in a recent speech

marking the department's 100-day anniversary.

 

Anti-terror weeds and bugs

 

Under the terms of Medford's grant, she has 18 months to figure out how to

make her weeds tattle on terrorists. If one of her plants noticed a deadly

nerve agent such as sarin gas, it would probably be too late to help people

nearby. But if it sensed anthrax in the air, people could know they were

exposed before showing symptoms. That would give them more time to take

antibiotics.

 

Medford's not using real biological and chemical agents in her experiments,

which are aimed at causing the rapid breakdown of chlorophyll. She's using

estrogen, because experiments have found it will prompt the " de-greening

circuit " in plants. That has prompted jokes from friends who tell her,

" Estrogen could be a terrorist agent. "

 

Other cutting-edge projects under way:

 

.. At Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, biologist Karen Kester

has worked for two years to see whether insects can deliver information

about hazardous or deadly agents in the soil, on the ground or in the air.

Funded by a $1 million Pentagon grant, she uses black lights, sticky papers

and traps to collect more than two dozen species of bugs.

 

The bugs are " like little sponges or dust mops, " Kester says. If officials

suspected a toxin had been released in a building or a park, they could

mobilize teams of emergency workers in protective suits to swab for samples.

Or they could let the bugs crawl and fly around, picking up samples, and

then collect them for tests. For routine monitoring, she says, bugs could be

used as part of a " 24/7 sampling scheme. "

 

.. In Menlo Park, Calif., speech-technology researchers at SRI International

have their hearts set on a small, handheld computer that can act as an

instant translator. The device would be able to understand almost anything

and immediately translate it into another language. Now a prototype, it

could be used by soldiers, border agents and airport security workers as " a

tiny computer mediating communication between two human beings, " says SRI's

program director, Kristin Precoda.

 

.. In Northbrook, Ill., a company called Nanosphere wants to invent an

inexpensive device that would recognize the DNA from any infectious disease

and diagnose it. If it works, emergency workers, doctors and hospitals could

figure out fast whether a person, or a water or food supply, had been

infected with a deadly or contagious biological agent.

 

Today, in terms of bio-detection, " we're almost in the stone age, " says Chad

Mirkin, Nanosphere's co-founder. " If you go to a doctor's office, they have

to take a sample of blood or urine, and you wait for three to five days

biting your knuckles, waiting for some results. "

 

The devices one day could be placed in post offices, at water treatment

plants or anywhere a biohazard might be released. Mirkin says one day they

could be in " every medicine cabinet " in the country.

 

Protecting the homeland

 

For decades, the Pentagon has relied on private industry to help it build

better bombs, stealthier aircraft, impenetrable chemical suits, longer-range

night-vision goggles and more.

 

Grants for such research come from an obscure federal agency called the

Technical Support Working Group (TSWG), which will also fund projects for

the Homeland Security department, as well as the Defense Advanced Research

Projects Agency (DARPA). Those agencies are funding the research at

Medford's lab and in Richmond, Menlo Park and Northbrook.

 

Now the Department of Homeland Security is setting up its own shop to fund

similar projects. The department has already given TSWG $30 million, and

another $100 million will become available this summer under the

department's own new program, to be called the Homeland Security Advanced

Research Projects Agency. Some of the projects the department funds will be

classified so that would-be terrorists can't find out about the technologies

and figure out how to subvert them. But other items on the wish list are

public.

 

One is a device that could help border and airport-security workers identify

people who are up to no good. When security agents are asked why they search

certain cars or question certain airline passengers, they usually can't

pinpoint what made them wary. So homeland-security officials want the

private sector to devise technology that would mark suspicious people by

their physiological responses to questions. Scientists know, for example,

that blood rushes to the eye muscles of someone who is lying, and that there

are other " thermal signatures " that indicate a person is under stress.

 

The trick is to ensure the device can differentiate between a fearful flier

and a would-be bomber.

 

The anti-terror wish list

 

The department's initial wish list, now outlined on the Technical Support

Working Group's Web site, also includes:

 

.. Self-decontamination kits that could be given to victims of a chemical

attack. The kits must be " easy to open without tools " and include a

decontaminant that is " safe to use on skin, wounds and mucus membranes. "

Instructions should be easy to follow, the department says, and the kits

should cost less than $10.

 

.. Technology to protect commercial and private aircraft from shoulder-fired

missiles during takeoffs and landings. It should be " practical " in terms of

the cost of retrofitting airplanes and should warn both ground operators and

pilots. Any system " must also consider the impact of collateral effects to

areas surrounding commercial airports. "

 

.. A sonar-based sea mine detection system that could search harbors,

channels and rivers for mines or other " threat objects " have been placed

under water.

 

Hundreds of unsolicited proposals already have made their way to

homeland-security officials in recent months from companies and universities

eager to win grants and contracts. The department's Tasia Scolinos was at an

event with Ridge a few months ago when " some guy walked up to me with a

manila envelope and said, 'Can you just make sure this gets into the right

hands?' "

 

Charles McQueary, a former defense industry executive now serving as the

department's undersecretary for science and technology, is assembling a team

of experts, including a medical doctor, to evaluate proposals and approve

grants.

 

Building a better mousetrap

 

It's not that the department lacks for high-tech gizmos and gadgets to fight

terrorism. It already uses state-of-the-art technology for bomb detection,

disease tracking and cybersecurity.

 

But someone can always build a better mousetrap.

 

" This is not something where we're going to reach an end state and say, 'We

have the perfect homeland-security protection,' " McQueary says.

 

Over time, any detection or prevention device is bound to become outdated as

technology advances.

 

What's more, he warns: " The potential threats can also become more

sophisticated. "

 

by USATODAY