Issue Three

“Although I don’t usually think about biological warfare, after the horrendous events of September 11, we all began thinking, well, what else? In some ways it would have been simpler to plan a biological attack than to try to hijack four planes. While TIGR was already sequencing the genome of the organisms that cause anthrax and a few other dangerous human pathogens, it was not part of a larger research effort on biological warfare. However, everybody was desperate to get as much information as possible and all of a sudden, journalists began to call me thinking I might be an expert on biological warfare,” Dr. Claire Fraser said.

Although she denies being an expert in biological warfare Dr. Fraser speaks
intelligently upon the matter. She is the President of The Institute of Genomic Research (TIGR) in Rockville, Maryland, a corporate suburb of Washington D.C.

Dr. Fraser is also Professor of Pharmacology at the George Washington University School of Medicine. She has published more than 130 articles in leading scientific journals, is a reviewer for nine journals and has edited two volumes in the Receptor Biochemistry and Methodology series on neurotransmitter receptors. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. She was selected as one of Maryland’s top 100 Women in 1997 and 2000 and also received the 1998 Computerworld Smithsonian Award for Innovation in Information Technology, the 1999 IMAS aware from the Institute for Mathematics and Advanced Supercomputing for outstanding achievements in the field of algorithms and their computer implementation.

 “If the United States was attacked with biological agents, we wouldn’t be able to figure out right away what it was or whether it was real or a hoax. It could be smallpox, it could be anthrax or it could be a cocktail of different organisms. What we’re doing at TIGR is basically generating a parts list for all of these bugs. In theory, you should be able to take all the genome information that’s being generated and combine it with the latest detection technology and get a read out, in real time, as to whether or not a sample of air or water has been contaminated. Questions like what is the infectious agent, has it been genetically modified and is it sensitive to antibiotics, could potentially be answered quickly, and having that capability would be an enormous step forward. One of the reasons biological attacks are so feared is the element of surprise, the chaos that would most likely result during a time when everyone is scrambling to figure out what is going on. Immediately people start presenting themselves at the hospital with weird symptoms of diseases that doctors don’t usually see. As for anthrax, you can treat it early with antibiotics. There is a vaccine for it but it doesn’t carry long-term immunity so you couldn’t think about being vaccinated and expect to be protected for five to ten years. Like antibiotics, the anthrax vaccine must be administered early to have any effect. You can imagine a public health situation where thousands of people suddenly begin to line up demanding the vaccine. It just doesn’t work. Another concern is that scientists in the former Soviet Union were working on developing genetically modified anthrax that had different proteins on the outside of the cell which made the U.S. vaccines ineffective. Very scary stuff.”

TIGR is a not-for-profit research organization that depends on grants to operate.

“Essentially all of our 40 million dollar annual research budget is funded by government grants. Part of my responsibility is to keep TIGR, ‘out there.’ I’m doing less science than anything else now. I feel that the most important part of my job now is really doing a road show, in keeping TIGR visible, and allowing the scientists on our faculty who are doing the actual work to focus on their work.”

TIGR will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary in 2002. It began with 10 people in an empty building in 1992 and today has a staff of 300 biological and computer scientists and a permanent 18-acre campus. TIGR is best known for its work in genomic research, particularly of microorganisms. It was at TIGR where the first genome of a free-living organism was sequenced in its entirety–Haemophilus Influenzae, a bacterium that can cause ear infections and meningitis. The achievement was led by TIGR founder Dr. Craig Venter and Nobel Laureate Hamilton Smith. Subsequently, both gentlemen published a new strategy for sequencing the human genome. While TIGR continued to work on microbial and plant DNA sequencing, in 1998, Dr. Venter, together with Applied Biosystems formed Celera Genomics Corporation–at that time promising to produce a complete sequence of the human genome with in three years.

“TIGR has an endowment through Craig’s generosity; he initially donated Human Genome Science, Inc. (HGS) stock and most recently some Celera stock to the organization that he started. That endowment covers incidentals and really is our rainy day fund,” Dr. Fraser said.

Venter’s donations have given TIGR some of the freedom to do the science that needs to be done. Craig’s generosity has also funded a project that fits with both his and Claire’s view that there is a need to invest in high risk-benefit research in order to reap big returns, something that government funding agencies usually shy away from doing. He recently donated an additional $100,000 from his 2000 King Faisal Award in Science to support a project at TIGR in collaboration with the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya to decipher the genetic code of a tick-transmitted parasite that kills millions of cattle each year in sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of this research is far-reaching and it may ultimately help the African population protect their livestock from infection, thereby preserving their own livelihood.

“It’s not the biggest thing we’re working on here at TIGR, we have many big things. The African work I am doing has been getting a lot of publicity because of the human-interest side but it’s not any larger than the other work we do here at TIGR.”

SEQUENCING EXPLAINED

While the computer process of sequencing DNA is complicated, interpreting the results are even more difficult because we are not yet very adept at understanding the secrets in our genetic code. However, this task is helped in part by the fact that humans share many of our genes with most other species on the planet. So, in some ways, understanding the biology of a human being may be as simple as explaining a banana because astonishingly, 50% of our genes are the same as a banana. Half of the human being is the same as a piece of fruit and it has also been said that we are even closer in relation to a fruit fly. How much like the fly?

“Most of the genes in the fruit fly have counterparts in humans with the exception of genes for wings and few other obvious differences.” Dr. Fraser said.

The process of sequencing in layman’s terms can be explained like this:

All life forms have genes that are made up of DNA. Years ago it was believed that humans had up to one hundred thousand genes. But the recent completion of the human genome revealed that humans have about 30,000 genes, just over twice as many as the fruit fly.

Genes contain the instructions that cells follow to make protein.

Proteins, from the Greek word, proteios, meaning ‘of prime importance’, are built from amino acids and are important because they do everything from replacing worn out cells, to rebuilding hormones to transporting fats and other nutrients in the body. Whether you are a banana, a fruit fly, a human or a stalk of wheat–life is made possible because proteins carry out all the work that goes on in our cells.

Each gene has within it the information for making different proteins.

When a gene is sequenced, scientists can get a very detailed look at the structure and sometimes the function of the protein that the gene specifies. If the gene is defective, scientists are able to change the gene itself and also can deduce what protein it makes. By studying, scientists hope that their research will help others develop ways to fix the protein and quite possibly cure whatever effect the defective gene, and hence the defective protein, is having on a person’s body.

Sequencing the human genome has also led to a discovery that is well worth noting–that all human beings are 99.9 percent alike in terms of our DNA sequence.

We are more alike than we are different. It is no longer rational for a human to believe that one culture or individual is superior because of genetic make-up. This may lead to finally understanding that differences in all life are due to social, cultural, psychological and external events–all areas that we have some control over. Racism should end once and for all.

Perhaps now we need to be careful of a new kind of racism whose source may lie in corporate America. How long before our insurance companies ask for a genetic test to see if humans have any defective or potentially defective genes? Will employers who want to keep their disability rates low want to see potential employees DNA read-outs instead of their resumes?