Researchers withhold gene sequences of potentially deadly botulinum toxin

Citing fears of use in biological warfare, researchers who discovered a potent new form of botulinum toxin have selectively withheld gene sequences needed to replicate it in the lab. The new toxin, discovered by a research team at the California Department of Public Health, was isolated from an infant. The research team was unable to neutralize the toxin with any known antisera, which simultaneously proved its status as a new toxin and made it a dangerous public health hazard. Facing an ethical dilemma, the research team decided to withhold key gene sequences in their description of the new toxin. In two papers appearing in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in October 2013, the research team described the first new botulinum neurotoxin reported in more than 40 years and explains that, until an effective antitoxin can be developed and shown to be effective, the gene sequence will remain sealed. Three accompanying commentaries discuss the fascinating history of the discovery of Clostridium botulinum in the late nineteenth century and its evolutionary diversity as well as the inherent tension between the closely held principle of openness in science and the growing specter of biological warfare with the attendant concerns for national security. This will surely not be the last time this issue is faced by the scientific community, and it’s worth evaluating these case studies of delicate ethical balancing acts between maintaining scientific freedom and safeguarding public health. —Karyn Hede, News Editor

Science and public health suffer under US shutdown

As the US government shutdown painfully demonstrated, the US scientific and public health enterprise has become vulnerable to the capriciousness of Congress. The shutdown caused permanent damage to countless research endeavors that will cost millions in lost productivity, to say nothing of the human cost. One of the widely publicized human costs, with immediate impact, affected the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, where desperately ill patients were turned away as clinical trials were shut down. The NIH had become a convenient political backdrop for grandstanding politicians attempting to cherry-pick which government functions qualify as “essential.”

After some in Congress complained, the NIH reopened the shuttered ClinicalTrials.gov database, allowing at least some trials to resume enrollment. The image of children being turned away from potentially lifesaving treatment was enough to get the Clinical Center partially reopened. Other, less immediately visible, scientific and medical research projects languished out of the spotlight. The NIH has told researchers that they can continue their research until their current grant money runs out. But perhaps the most disturbing turn of events is that the budget fight has rendered the NIH a politically expedient poster child, a status that doesn’t bode well for the future stability of research funding. —Karyn Hede, News Editor

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