New Scientist synthesizes the elements of the problem posed by the combination of gene synthesis and the mapping of genes that comprise deadly viruses. The emphasis in the piece is on the technology involved in moving the information through the internet. It is a great article:
Such a check would have spotted one suspicious order, sent from a Hotmail address to BaseClear of Leiden, the Netherlands. This was for a modified sequence from a hepatitis-like virus. BaseClear itself rejected the order after the would-be customer failed to respond to requests for more information, says Gerben Zondag, the firm’s scientific director.
But email addresses are notoriously easy to fake. And even orders from legitimate institutions may not be what they seem. Alfred Lasher, who manages Picoscript in Houston, Texas, says that he turned down one order placed by an individual at a US biotech firm, after Picoscript’s enquiries revealed the gene was being ordered on behalf of a friend in another country.
Experts are concerned that the checks currently employed by some companies aren’t sufficient to exclude orders placed by terrorists. “We’re taking this very seriously,” says Endy. Together with the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, Endy’s research group at MIT has launched a study into the risks and benefits of synthetic genomics, and aims to produce a set of policy recommendations by late 2006. The US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, set up last year to advise the US government on which advances in biology could be exploited by terrorists, is also considering the issue.