[wordup] Scientists Build Polio Virus from Scratch

[Adam Shand]

Via: The Eristocracy <Eristocracy at merrymeet.com>
From: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992539

Scientists have built the virus that causes polio from scratch in the lab,
using nothing more than genetic sequence information from public databases
and readily available technology.

The feat proves that even if all the polio virus in the world were
destroyed, it would be easily possible to resurrect the crippling disease,
says Aniko Paul at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, one of
the researchers conducting the study.

The result has major implications for vaccination programs that have nearly
rid the world of polio. "I think it means you're probably not going to be
able to stop vaccinating people even after you eradicate the virus," says
Diane Griffin of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Paul believes the synthesis method could be applied to other viral diseases.
"We feel this could be used for ebola, smallpox, just about anything," she
says. This raises the worrying possibility that bioterrorists could use a
similar approach to create devastating diseases without having to gain
access to protected viral stocks.

However, infectious disease specialists emphasise that these other viruses
are far more complex than poliovirus and, for the time being at least, could
not be synthesised so easily.

Step by step 

Much of the technology needed for this experiment has been around for more
than a decade, so researchers expected the experiment to work.
"Conceptually, it's not a surprise," says Eric Rubin from Harvard's School
of Public Health.

Nonetheless, it is the first time that researchers have generated an
infectious agent from scratch. Paul says: "It's important that the
scientific world knows that this is possible. If we know about it, we can
prepare for it."

Paul and her colleagues used chemical techniques to produce large segments
of DNA corresponding to portions of the polio virus. They made one segment
themselves, then ordered the rest from a company that routinely
machine-generates DNA.

Once they had all the segments, the team pasted the pieces together to
produce one long stretch of DNA. They then used a commercially available
enzyme to convert the DNA into RNA - the genetic form of the polio virus.

Finally, they added the RNA to a soup made from human cells. This enabled
the RNA to use the cellular machinery to create the proteins that complete
the virus particles. The result was an infectious agent that could destroy
cultured human cells and paralyse or kill mice in much the same way as the
normal polio virus.

Journal reference: Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1072266)
 
-- 
"Make the invisible visible. Let people see." -- Bruce Sterling