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Laboratory Biosecurity 2020: A Focus on Dual Use Research of Concern and Emerging Biotechnology_
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Malaka Hawaiian unbalanced on are we
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you
before we start our webinar here are
some reminders and guidelines for our
virtual participants first please
observe proper webinar and video
conferencing etiquette also please
change your settings to speaker view we
are also kindly requesting all
participants to turn off their video you
may post your questions regarding the
lectures through the link flashed in
your screen alternatively you may also
post your questions through the chat box
in your zoom console
lastly details on how to get your
certificate swill be flashed at the end
of the webinar we expect your adherence
to these guidelines thank you very much
you
the biorisk Association of the
Philippines in collaboration with the
Philippine Association of medical
technologists warmly welcomes all our
virtual participants to our 4th join
webinar this webinar will focus on
biosecurity the awareness of
laboratorians in biosafety and
biosecurity measures particularly during
this time of pandemic shall be
highlighted for them to be alert in
recognizing by a security threat the new
technologies and the dual use research
of concern will be discussed and
participants will learn why it is
important to know how to identify it
what is the role of risk benefit
assessment and how to develop a risk
mitigation and communication plan let us
all welcome our session moderator for
this webinar he is an active be Rapp
member a practicing veterinarian an
associate professor from the college of
veterinary medicine of central Mindanao
University ladies and gentlemen dr. Jose
Ovid & Co jr. good evening everyone once
again welcome to the fourth webinar of
the bio race Association of the
Philippines in collaboration with the
Philippine Association of medical
technologists on laboratory biosecurity
2020 a focus on emerging biotechnology
and dual use research
so concern the next session is viewed by
our official participants bye-bye Azul
and we also have our viewers through
Facebook that is currently streamed live
via the Facebook group of the Bureau to
fall to formally open the event and
welcome you all I give you the present
at the national president of the permit
and that and vice president of Europe
mr. Ronaldo who know a very good day in
a bio stage in biosecurity thanks to all
our participants join me around the
world it is my distinct honor and
privilege to represent both the diary's
Association of the Philippines and the
Philippine Association of medical
technologies in welcoming you with the
for joint webinar entitled laboratory
biosecurity 2020 a focus on emerging
biotechnology in dual use research of
concern laboratory by safe is more than
just in guarding of dangerous pathogen
and of seeds from individuals or
organizations who would use them for
harm while protection of dangerous
pathogens and have scenes is obviously
appropriate the scientific medical and
pharmaceutical communities should also
consider protecting materials with
historical vertical epidemiological
commercial or scientific value this
decision should be taken with due
consideration to the fam the scientists
serve only as temporary custodians of
valuable scientific assets whose past
and current value to science will be
understood but missed utility for the
future can only be estimated
dual use research of concern is life
sciences research that is intended for
benefit but which might easily be
supplied to do harm and SARS co2 is not
an exemption the advances of science
open doors to infinite possibilities to
make use of acquired knowledge and
techniques systems and controls should
be in place to avoid illegitimate or at
ethical research researchers laboratory
workers and by safety and laboratory
biosecurity managers should communicate
and collaborate and strive to find the
correct ethical balance for the
activities performed the possibility the
dual use research might result in his
use either intentionally or accidentally
is a long-standing concern of silence
the issue abroad and encompass the only
research in public health but also
security scientific publishing and
public communications the technology and
ethics and wider societal issues so
let's take this opportunity to learn
more and be more responsible in the use
of research as we aim towards improving
life - life sciences have an enjoyable
webinar and good day to everyone thank
you very much
thank you so much Durrani and now see it
to our first stop on a decade and by
security in the Philippines our speaker
is the physician pathologist by
profession who after finishing anatomic
and clinical pathology at Mojave Medical
Center in Ankeny TV show
was to shift career to medical research
at the research and biotechnology of st.
Luke's Medical Center in castle City in
2001 he co-founded the Philippine
biosafety and biosecurity Association
incorporated in 2008 meanwhile taking
the US Department of State banded
advanced biosafety officer training
course finishing as botched won in 2011
with his training and background in
biosafety he was appointed as biosafety
officer of st. Luke's Medical Center in
2013 in Quezon City and in global 1620
seeing the tremendous risk laboratorians
were facing with a gamut of pathogens in
the laboratory because permit to join
with him in embracing biosafety and
biosecurity which permit and
conditionally accepted it was then that
he founded a biased Association of the
Philippines incorporated also known as
Mira in 2015 with
Georgio his founding officers were
medical technologist his efforts to
advocate my safety in the country
despite the hurdles and once he needed
to climb he successfully overcame all
this and caught the eye of the
International Federation and biosafety
associations in Ottawa Canada and
awarding him the title if Bob I saved
the hero in 2016 he sought professional
certification with if BA in bio risk
management and biosecurity and obtained
these in 2017 without further ado help
me welcome dr. Miguel Martin in Moreno's
ii the bureau founding an incumbent
president breathing everyone i will
present you tonight i experience on how
beer up and I together with pomade
advocated laboratory by security and by
safety in our country let me share my
slides this presentation will focus on
my involvement in its advocacy on our
laboratories in the Philippines came to
know about my safety and biosecurity in
the last 10 to 11 years this
presentation is my own creation and does
not mirror the goals and objectives of
permit and/or Dara I personally learned
all about by safety biosecurity and then
by risk management way back in 2008 when
the laboratory I was working with
recommended me to join a training funded
by the u.s. Department of State
biosecurity engagement program it does
it like to move okay so this next two
slides this is the first one or my first
original slides way back in 2008 that I
used to present to participants to show
definitions and key terms I use in the
course to review why safety is about
prevention of unintentional risks or
protecting people from pathogens well by
security's focus on preventing in
intentional risk or protecting pathogens
from the people in addition to
protecting occupational workers
laboratory biosafety safeguards the
public and the environment from
students involving pathogens and toxins
bioscience laboratory personnel and
management have a similar responsibility
to implement by security systems but the
concepts on biosecurity are much less
understood than biosafety the word
laboratory is used in front of biosafety
and biosecurity to help guide the
definition and avoid confusion with
other meanings of the words by safety
and biosecurity however my safety and by
security principles apply to situations
outside the laboratory as well such as
field work or in the transport of
biological materials the term
biosecurity has multiple meanings
definitions and this can lead to
confusion among participants to make
sure everyone is on the same page it is
important for us to clear about which
meaning of biosecurity world we are
referring to in this webinar the
definition was list this definition was
lifted from the 2006 edition of the WH
overlap by biosecurity guidance and it
states protection control and
accountability for valuable biological
materials within laboratories in order
to prevent their unauthorized access
loss theft misused diversion or
intentional release here is the official
wh-wha publications showing the
evolution of the first edition in 1983 I
have not seen the hard copies of the
1983 and 1993 editions the very the very
first edition I got my hands on was the
Towson free edition i witnessed its
evolution and improvement since then the
2004 edition was used for a very long
time until the 4th edition came out in
2009
and laboratory biosecurity as defined in
the fourth edition refers to
institutional and personal personnel
security measures designed to prevent
the loss safe is use diversion or
intentional release of biological agents
being handled in the laboratory a little
thoughts about laboratory biosecurity as
being emphasized in the fourth edition
addressing laboratory by City theories
in many ways parallels and complements
that of by safety risk management
effective by safety practices start a
foundation of laboratory biosecurity and
biosecurity risk mitigation must be
performed as an integral part of an
institution's by safety program
management there are many challenges and
Kavya - Kavya associated with
implementing by security policies and
procedures for example many biological
agents against which protection is
needed can be found in the National
Environment an in addition biological
agents of interest may only be used in
very small quantities or may be capable
of self-replicating making them
difficult to detect or 25 in some cases
the process of quantification may itself
posts by safety and by seeking risks
furthermore while there is potential for
malicious use of this biological agent
the use is valuable for many legitimate
and benign benign diagnostic commercial
medical and research applications for
this reason it is essential to properly
assess potential biosecurity risk and
establish appropriate mitigation
measures that can reduce is without
hindering scientific processes and
progress these measures should comply
with with nano standards and regulatory
procedures can be proportionate to the
assess risks to achieve this an approach
stimulated to the biosafety risk
assessment framework should be
undertaken with specific focus on
biosecurity to identify whether an
institution mylord possesses biological
agents that may be attractive to those
who may wish to use them maliciously the
depth of this biosecurity risk
assessment should be proportionate to
the identified risk for most
laboratories biosecurity risk assessment
can often be combined with a bi safety
risk management rather than being a
standalone activity as with biosafety
the biosecurity risk process also
includes the development of strategy to
manage the biosecurity risk by selecting
and implementing biosecurity mitigation
measures a laboratory biosecurity
program is required to prepare implement
oversee and review these processes
according to the requirements of the
facility in many cases this can be
combined with by safety program
management although it may need to be a
standalone program where the bicipital
risks identified are severe and/or in
numerous I know you will recognize this
figure it was the one we started using
way back in 2006 so for a short review
physical security
into access control intrusion detection
alarm assessment response and then you
have personal security background checks
periodic investigations which has
already evolved into something higher
now pathogen security or otherwise known
as material control and accountability
focusing on detailed inventory internal
external transfer and inactivation and
disposal records of pathogens and of
course transport security and forever
three-way packaging system knowing from
where how and where will it be
transported no having a knowledgeable
eye at a person certified personnel on
board always an information security
which deals with confidentiality
integrity and availability of
information in also passwords and
backups so this was the these were the
elements of by security way back in 2006
when I started lecturing with permit and
other associations in 2014
after after attending a conference in
Europe I came home with this information
of having eight pillars of biosecurity
already which I cascaded right we a day
after I arrived I think that was in
permit Bulacan chapter so we see the
five pillars as described earlier and
additional three pillars our
organization management awareness in bio
preparedness attestation management is
simply ensuring management in
administration that they fully support
the biosafety and biosecurity program of
the institution by institutionalizing
the program and finding resources for
its program implementation and
activities awareness sorry
awareness is simply making sure that the
by safe in biosecurity program policies
with cascaded to the entire institution
from top to bottom and from left to
right by your preparedness and incident
management is preparing the laboratory
against any form of lab activity
disruption and now to respond to the
disruption of the recovering back after
the disruption is resolved which was us
which was termed resiliency in the new
whu-oh laboratory by safety manual of
2019 we have eight new pillars in the
addition to the lab base as weh-weh show
has made big changes in this edition
where from the regional five elements
inventory control let me get that out
from the initial five elements inventory
control information control personnel
control physical sensitivity control
transport control and the last is
emergency incident response plan as I
say
w-h-o made changes were from the
original five elements the one the one
element from the 2014 list which was my
preparedness they have added two new
pillars which are dual use research of
concern and emerging by technology these
two additions will be the topic of our
next two speakers thank you very much
for your attention
these are my references in the case you
would like to read on we thank you so
much dr. Martin thank you
for those who have questions you can
place it in the chat box we will have
the open forum after all the speakers
have delivered your thoughts so we will
proceed with our next talk on dual use
research and dual use research of
concern our next speaker is working as
technical adviser at health security
partners where she provides coordination
and technical support to a chess piece
health security programs in Pakistan
she has five if ba certifications and is
serving as an if but global mentor she
has also worked as a SME an ambassador
to Pakistan in 2013 to 2016 and a chess
Speas hell secure the future fellow in
2015 she has been providing by a risk
management critter national
organizations please help me welcome dr.
submarines our what sir war hello and
one good evening and I am very thankful
to be rep and permit for the invitation
to discuss tea you are see today and in
2015 I assess the level of awareness and
attitudes of researchers in Pakistan
towards still use research of concern
through a survey and published my
findings since then I have been truing
training on dual use research of concern
and updating my knowledge on it so I
know that this topic might be new to
majority of you so I welcome your
questions and I'll try to answer your
questions as many questions as possible
in this lecture or maybe or maybe you
can I will be able to answer your
questions to email after this lecture as
well so let's discuss why you need to
know about the URC and what actually
means by the term DRC so I'm sharing my
screen
I'm turning off my video so that you can
there's no internet reception okay so
what is dual use research of concern
this is very important for all of us to
know what does this mean because this is
a new concept and it came in early
twenty thousand twenty twenty thousand
but this concept is still new among many
of us and we need to understand this why
it is important and why it is relevant
to all of us in 2001 there was a group
of researchers who manufacture who
constructed like they made a polio virus
using the nucleotide sequences which are
present and databases on the Internet
and what they did they took the sequence
from the database and they synthesized a
polio virus from scratch in their lab
they synthesized that polio virus from
chemically synthesized oligonucleotides
and when they published these findings
in 2002 this sparked a huge debate in
the scientific community that why this
experiment was needed at its first place
what was the need to manufacture a polio
virus in the lab because possibly this
could be a recipe or you can say this
could be an idea for people with bad
intentions that similarly like polio
virus many other viruses can also be
synthesized in the lab and these viruses
could be very good candidates for
biological weapons so this was very
important to understand that what were
are the dual use consequences of this
research the researchers who did this
research they defended themselves by the
same that we want to test the
possibility that is is it possible to
construct a virus in lab but and they
also defended themselves by saying that
if this virus polio virus is present all
around the world then why why they will
feel the need to synthesize it in lab so
this this doesn't
make sense so but this sparked a huge
debate in the scientific community later
on in 2005 there was a research in which
they constructed the influenza virus
Spanish flu you many of you might know
that Spanish flu came in 1918 and this
pandemic stayed in the world from 1917
to 1920 and 50 million people died in
this pandemic which is 3 percent of the
world's population at that time so they
reconstructed that virus in their lab
and this reconstruction again got many
questions on it that why it was
important to construct this deadly virus
in lab so the researchers had said that
if we will not prepare if will not study
this virus we will not be able to make
countermeasures will not be able to make
vaccines will not prepare ourselves for
future similar pandemics that's why it
is important to construct this virus in
lab and to study it to explore the
pandemic potential of this virus so you
see that biological research there are
both a peaceful can also be used for
peaceful purposes and there are some
harmful this can also be used for
harmful uses as well so what comes in to
harmful use it can be used by bio
terrorists or other people who have bad
intentions they can be used as bio
weapons and what are the peaceful
purposes they can be used in
pharmaceuticals vaccines and diagnostics
now this is the dual use component of
biological research early on it was
there was a concept that dual use is
only dual use research is a limited
group of research projects now with the
passage of time people have and the
scientific community has started
thinking that dual use research is not
only a limited role number of research
products are not only dual use research
possibly all biological research all
biological research can at least
theoretically be dual use because for
example if you are doing the research
who are studying just the pathogenicity
of the virus or you are just studying
whether
it is resistant to certain antibiotics
or not these simple pieces of
information when they combine that could
generate an information which can be
used with by people with bad intentions
so now we can say that every research is
possibly dual-use and this is why it is
important for all of us to know about
how we should be looking at our research
projects how should we have a security
mindset to look at our risk projects and
ourself decide what are the benefits of
this research and how my research can be
misused by someone else okay so in this
lecture we'll see how to identify which
research is dual use research of concern
and once we identify that this
particular research project is D u RC
which is B you would use research of
concern what will we do about it well
how will we assess and how we will
manage the risks which are associated
with it in so let's start with the
controversy which again came up in 2011
that too many scripts were submitted to
nature and science and these too many
scripts in these too many scripts there
was successful synthesis of a more
deadly variant of highly pathogenic
influenza and what was the most worrying
thing about it was that this influenza
had 60 percent mortality rate so you can
see that Spanish flu has only 2.5
percent mortality rate but this avian
influenza had 60 percent mortality rate
and this was also able to transmit
between mammals to air route airborne
route and this sparked a huge debate and
nature in size recognized the dual use
potential of this research and they said
why it is important to do this research
why you feel the need to make a more
deadly variant of highly pathogenic
avian influenza so the scientists said
that we want to see what is possible
what is possible rather than just sit
and wait how niche natural mutations or
natural mutations which are occurring
they can possibly generate a more
avian influenza strain which can spark a
global catastrophic
so this is how the scientists justified
this so you can see that since both how
early 2000 2001 there have been a lot of
research projects which were which came
up which has dual use potential but how
we will distinguish between dual use
research and dual use research of
concern so dual use research is simply a
research project any research project
which have which is done by a researcher
for good purposes for beneficial
purposes but there can be some risks
associated with it not by safety risk
there are risk that it can be used by
someone else by someone else not by the
researcher who is doing this research by
someone else using the information using
the project of that research using the
technology which is being generated as a
result of that research he can misuse
this information this prod product and
this technology so they're both uses
there are peaceful uses and there are
harmful uses of of one research but when
we will call this research as dual use
research of concern there are two main
points on it so how wh showed the
financed it so it's it's important that
you understand the basic concept that
what is dual use research the biological
research which can have both peaceful
purposes and which can be used for bad
purposes as well but how we will define
dual use research of concern this is
research biblia Cho defines is that is
intended for benefit like the researcher
is doing it for benefit but it can be
easily miss applied to do harm okay so
let's see how NSABB defines this
research there are two important points
one is the scope and second one is how
immediately is can be Mis applied so
whenever we designate a research as dual
use research of concern so that word
concern is important because it means
that it has a huge scope of broad
potential consequences or
threat to public health and safety group
to crops to plants to animals to
material to environment so it means what
is the score it should be has
significant threat to public health and
safety and it should be immediately
misapplied you should be able to move
immediately miss supplied okay so when
we see at the definition of the you are
see any research project which can be
easily miss applied immediately miss
applied in as a broad significant threat
to public health means its scope of
destruction is very high then we will
call if SD you are see okay so this is
the difference between D u R and D you
are see when when the word concerns
attach with it it means it has a huge
scope of catastrophic destruction and it
can be immediately miss applied you do
not need a lot of information a lot of
support in terms of like all the
information is readily available in this
research project that it can be upon me
supplied to to do harm for example if we
take the first example in our first
example we saw that they make a highly
pathogenic avian influenza virus strain
if that strain is released into the
environment it can immediately call
cause major public health it can
threaten Public Health and Safety can
cause a lot of deaths immediately okay
and it's scored because deaths is very
high that's why we can designate that
research as dual use research of concern
so when the experiments there were
controversial experiments when they
start coming up in 2001 and then two and
then three national research council in
us they made a committee which was
chaired by Fink okay
so they made a committee in 2004 and
they all the scientists came together
they sit together and this this thought
that we should do something about it
before this these research projects are
being published openly and every anyone
can access this information and can use
it for bad purposes so these were a few
there
made like they make a sync report and
the name of this Fink report is
biotechnology in an age of terrorism
confronting the dual use dilemma so they
made this report which is called as Fink
report and what were the recommendations
of this roofing report they said that we
should educate the scientific
community's national and international
organizations they should educate
researchers about dual use research of
concern because ultimately the
researcher is the one who knows his
research the best the researcher is the
one who decides to do this particular
project and it is very important to
educate that scientists if that
scientists is able to identify the URC
he will be able to report he'll be able
to take proper mitigation for my years
from the very start
it's very important to educate
scientific community it's very important
to educate the other stakeholders okay
then the second point is review of plans
for experiments so what does this mean
that for example IR EVG institutional
review entity or it can be make part of
institutional biosafety committee
whenever the research project comes to
IBC for approval they should have D you
are C experts on board who can evaluate
that research project whether it has any
dual use potential or not and if there
any any D you are see potential comes up
they should address it they should ask
researchers to take proper mitigation
measures or modify in their research
then publications take stage review
tells us that the journals which which
review the articles and which publish
the articles they should have a DRC they
should review it from the DRC
perspective okay so if for example in
our earlier example we saw that in
nature and science bathe themselves
reported they came up that this research
has to lose potential and it should be
taken care of okay so this is very
important that the journals should have
proper people who have the expertise in
to you RC and they should evaluate
research projects on the URC grounds
then they feel the need of create
our National Science Advisory Board for
biosecurity who can provide advice or do
one use research both government and for
the researchers in addition to this
there should be improved communication
between law enforcement and life science
organizations because ultimately if you
are going to report something you'll
have to both of these stakeholders you
understand each other so otherwise it
will not be able to properly highlight
these problems and report these problems
six point was that so for example a
researcher made a very highly package
anak infinite avian influenza virus in
their lab and but not intentionally but
unintentionally this virus was if it is
released into the environment it can
cause similar damage of broad potential
consequences that is why it is also
important to have proper physical
containment and it should they should
sort out the biosecurity and personal
issues and then there should be
international oversight because these
research because the publication goes
everywhere anyone from around the world
can access this publication it means
they will they can use this information
if there is no coordination in among
international internationally then it
will not work there should be consensus
there should be international
internationally - to be consensus
between countries on how to regulate and
how to do proper oversight of this kind
of research okay so now we will discuss
what are the seven categories of
experiments so NSABB which i told you
that they created a National Science
Advisory Board for biosecurity they said
that what we can do we can identify
could some categories of experiments
which has high potential that take fall
under bu RC they have high potential
that they can fall and do you RC so they
identified seven categories these seven
categories for example if you are
enhancing the harmful consequences of a
biological agent for example you are
making it more virulent you are making
it more like able to infect people with
more virulent and
it has more consequences of reinfection
or disrupting immunity for example you
can meet you make a virus which is
against which the vaccination which is
already in place will not work against
this virus ok confer a resistant for
example if you have for example
doxycycline for Vibrio the making
strains which are resistant to
antibiotics or therapeutic interventions
which are already in place or you are
increasing their stability in the
environment you are increasing this
transmissibility for any reason for
example there was experiment on cluster
Clostridium botulinum and the purpose of
that experiment was to make more
resistant spores of Clostridium
botulinum and the reason behind that was
that these spores will not be able to
study these spores in detail if you will
not make it more stable so that's why
they made their spores more stable but
that was not for any bad intentions that
for that were that experiment was for
good but but ultimately you are giving a
recipe on how to make cost freedom what
L&M spores more stable so this is that
is why it comes under the you are see
because you are increasing the stability
increasing the transmissibility oh you
want to alter the host range like for
earlier on it was not able to infect
Birds now it is able to infect Birds for
everyone it was not able to infect
mammals now it is able to infect mammals
or you increase the susceptibility of
the host population like for example you
enter a gene into a virus that whenever
they enter into the body the immune
system will not work as a result of this
gene okay or you are generating a normal
pack version or weakens constituting an
extent biological agents these
categories all seven categories of
experiments they come under they can
come under the you are see they don't
come under you a cynic can come under
the you are so you will have to do
assessment and will see whether they can
come in the you are see or not okay so
these are experiments of concerns
whenever these experiment at your
research falls under these categories
the your research will need
identification whether this
for this is purC or north and then it
will require more concern more vigilance
and more oversight and then they are a
select agent these select agents are
because they are very weak us the name
us name of these agents is select agents
they are also called as security
sensitive biological agents they are
also called tires tire 1 type 2 agents
or specially dangerous pathogens there
are different names for these sorts of a
sort of agents in different countries
why these agents are important because
they have higher potential to be misused
in as a biological weapon because they
have like all the properties which a
biological weapon should have ok so now
after knowing the 7 categories of
experiments and after knowing the Select
agents now we will see how will we
identify that our research is do you RC
or not it doesn't mean that your we
experiment falls under 7 categories that
it is diverse it doesn't mean that it is
do you are see if your experiment falls
under 7 categories if you are working on
a select agent it doesn't mean that your
experiment is do you RC to be called as
bu RC or to be designated as d you are
see did that particular research project
should fit into the definition of the
you are see if it doesn't fit into the
definition of B you are see whether it
is one of the seven categories of
experiments whether it is select agent
it will not be called Rd you are C okay
so for to coop to be called as d you are
C it should fit into the definition of
you do you are C okay and there is there
is an other case as well sometimes you
are doing research which doesn't fall
under these seven categories you are not
working on select agents but still that
research has the potential to be called
as the you are see for example in early
2001 - there was experiments in which
they were making a device which
transmitted aerosols stood too deep into
the lungs so they've made it for
estimate agents to deliver drug deep
into the lungs but they came up at the
same device can be used
for the spread of pathogen as well so it
doesn't come under seven categories it
doesn't involve a select agent but it
fits into the definition of do you RC
that's why it could be called as the you
RC okay so once you designate that your
research is to RC and I only have
mentioned that to be called as the you
RC you should have the that particular
research project should have the scope
of broad potential consequences or
significant threat to public health and
safety and the second thing was it
should be immediately miss appliable
okay so it should should should be
immediacy so what are the two main
things
it is the scope and immediacy scope and
immediacy so to be called as this if it
has the scope and it can be immediately
we supply it it will fit into the
definition of purC okay now what you
will do about the you are see if you
have identified that your research
project is to you who are see it doesn't
mean that research should be prohibited
or should not be published okay
what you do is that if you because we
cannot hinder scientific progress we
cannot sign scientific progress just
because of a small chance that
bioterrorism or terrorists can use this
information to make something very
dangerous for Public Health and Safety
whatever doe will apply proper
mitigation meyers why we want to
identify the Urca at the first place
that will be able to apply mitigation
Myers we will be able to see how it
should be communicated and if there is
no benefits associated with this
research what we will do we will
discontinue you know the research but
this will be the last option
do you RC designation doesn't mean that
you stop research do you just what you
do you do risk and benefit assessment so
this is the question that should
scientist stop the research one it once
it is designated as to you RC no
scientist should not stop the research
they should evaluate it they should see
what
are the risks associated with this
research they should see what are the
benefits which are associated with this
PCH for example what are the mix for
example biosecurity risks they are
biosafety risks there are risks which
are associated with communication it can
cause public public threat like it can
cause a panic panic in the public it can
shatter public confidence so these are
all associated risks it can be used for
bioterrorism these are the risks which
are associated with DQ RC but what are
the benefits the same research can be
used to make for example as I earlier
mentioned that to make us for more
stable so if you make us for more stable
you able to study it ok so what are the
benefits it will progress science it
will what are the benefits it might be
used the information which is which will
be generated as a result of this
research it will be used for therapeutic
purposes for vaccination for other
beneficial purposes ok so then comes the
question that after a careful
risk-benefit assessment that once a
research is designated as d you are see
you assess the risks you assess the
benefits then you weigh them if the
benefits are more than the risk what you
do you will focus on the risks apply
proper mitigation measures and you will
try to bring this risk under acceptable
range okay and you will continue your
research you will do continuous
monitoring of your research you will
plan out accordingly
you will apply apply proper mitigation
measures and you will see what how will
I communicate this research what should
be my communication plan but sometimes
it happens for example in certain
research projects the risks are more
than the benefits the benefits are very
few but the risks are very high the work
what will you do you will either modify
it a bit if you are not able to control
the risks with proper mitigation
measures you will try to control or
modify your research and if it is not
possible to modify your wrist your risk
and still the risks are very high
you may consider the continuing it okay
this is the last option that UD
continued but initially you think what
mitigation mayor's can be applied what
control my years you can need to be in
place how you will continuously monitor
it and how will you plan communication
okay now you have risk and benefit you
have identified the you are C you have
done risk and benefit assessment and
then you see that the benefits outweigh
the risk benefits are more and the risks
are less then you will see that how you
can move forward for example the
benefits are prediction of pandemics
like we see that they made a more
virulent strain of avian influenza so
this was important to have for to
prepare for the worst-case scenarios or
to see what is the pandemic potential of
this virus or you want to understand
host-pathogen interactions or you can
want to make effective counter my years
oh this is very important that there is
this is this is there is one school of
thought the things that when the
research is funded with public money
public has the right to know about it so
the renter was the research about the
highly avian avian pathogenic avian
influenza virus was under review in
nature and science journals they said
that we will publish it
after omitting critical information like
critical information which can be
misused like material and methods but
later on there was a huge opposition
against this the scientific one
one group of scientists do you think
that how you can like redact some
information who gave you the right to
like like hinder a published publishing
full manuscript so later on they took
their decision back and they allowed
full publication because the scientists
think that if you'll not publish
complete results the other scientific
groups cannot challenge that research
they cannot do it they cannot see
whether it was actually the case or not
okay and the risks are for example
they can be accidental exposure or
release through rigorous biosafety and
biosecurity project it procedures it can
provide a recipe for bioterrorist it can
provide unnecessary experiments that do
not have a health or societal benefit it
can create a normal pathogen so when we
see it in the context of cobalt 19
during this pandemic we can foresee
there this pathogen which if it is which
it is if it is stored without proper
biosecurity in my earth these pathogens
can be acquired by research groups and
these these research groups can do
certain types of research on this
packaging but if they don't know what
can be the implications of their
research whether there it is possible to
use this information some other groups
can use your information for bad
purposes so in Co it in this in the
context of Corbett 19 you need to
understand that whenever you are
starting your research you should
analyze the risks and benefits
associated with it and if your benefits
are more than the risks then you should
properly address these risks in your
publication and you should publish it
accordingly okay so it's very important
that whenever you are going to do any
research analyze it from this
perspective that why it is important so
it is very important to have a security
mindset okay so how you will communicate
it so communication is very important it
in this it is one of the mitigation
measures so what are you going to
publish it fully for example you are
going to include material and methods or
you want to omit material and methods
what should be the timing you want to
publish it immediately or you want to
publish it later on for example you are
working on a pathogen whose vaccine is
not available until yet publishing it
like publishing this particular package
and a more virulent strain of this
pathogen can be more disastrous at this
point but later on when it's vaccine is
already available then the risk
associated with research automatically
goes down so timing is also very
important and extent of distribution is
that up to how how like which people
want to access your research you want to
do it open open access completely any
any person around the world can see the
content all you want to to access your
research by certain groups who are
working doing the relevant research only
and who applied through proper channel
to get access so this is responsible
communication okay so this is basically
do you RC in in the end I will like to
mention a very key important points that
the seven categories of experiments if
your research falls under seven
categories of experiments okay
it cannot be do you RC there is a
possibility that it is the you RC or not
but if your research falls under these
seven categories of experiment it
requires more oversight it requires more
vigilance it requires more concern okay
but there are research projects so it
doesn't fall under these seven
categories of experiment they are but
they still are D you are see right now
why it is naked because now it is
considered that almost all research
projects should be should be analyzed
from the from the very first stage when
students are designing their projects
this test we should build a security
mindset in these students okay the first
like researchers think that whatever
they are doing they are doing it for
good but they don't think that what can
be the misapplications of my research
this security bringing a security
mindset among this these researchers it
was very important so they are able to
analyze their research from that point
and they continuously versus revisit
their research because they are the most
responsible in this in this term because
they are the one who knows they research
the best ok so this is very important
that he would build a security mindset
in our researchers from the very early
carrier in their in in research ok so
thank you very much and well maybe we'll
address questions in time
thank you very much dr. Sam ring okay
thank you very much dr. Sami that was a
very comprehensive discussion on dual
use research of concern so you can still
post your questions for dr. serene and
dr. Marten in the chat box or in the
link that was provided earlier in the
session so we will now go straight to
our last top
Oh which will be on biosecurity 2020
ensuring biosecurity Freaker serves as a
director of scientific programs as
health security partners or HSV which is
a nonprofit organization based in
Washington DC and indicated the building
local capacity for health security
globally his training is in molecular
biology and biochemistry and he holds a
PhD from John Hopkins University after
conducting best research for a few years
our speaker dr. Prasad moved to the
field of global health security working
through a number of nonprofit
organization to strengthen laboratory
and health security capacity he has been
supporting partnership to prevent the
attack and respond to emerging BIOS
biological threats in the Philippines
and across the Seon region dr. Prasad
and H SP has been a partner of Europe
since the very big
evening and were working on multiple
efforts and strengthened by security
systems in the Philippines with that we
welcome dr. Prasad kuta bali thank you
for that wonderful introduction and I
would I would like to say thank you also
to dr. Martin and the be Rapp committee
for inviting me to share my thoughts on
emerging technologies and biosecurity
let me share my screen and then we can
get started
you
you
okay I think both the talks given by dr.
Martin and by submarine were perfect
introductions to the topic and this is
just going to be a continuation
I think dr. Martin covered the basic
elements of biosecurity really well and
then submarine focused on dual use
research of concern and this is going to
continue on research but research using
new technologies that are coming out and
how they affect our perception of
biosecurity and what methodologies we
have to reduce the risk from these
technologies so I will start by telling
you what these emerging technologies are
and how they work and I should tell you
that I am NOT an expert in these
emerging technologies my focus area is
on the biosecurity threats from these
emerging technologies so are I - I'm
learning as I go
every every week there are new
publications there are new discoveries
in this field and then you you know
people like me who bleed it often think
wow we have not thought about that that
that poses a significant risk what do we
do about it
but then these emerging technologies are
superbly exciting because they have the
potential to grow the Bioeconomy they
can bring jobs they can provide
solutions to infectious disease problems
and as well as you know chronic disease
problems that we face so so there's a
lot of potential for growth and I'll
talk about that and then I'll talk about
the threats from these technologies and
then mechanisms for addressing the
threats and ensuring biosecurity
so there are there are many emerging
technologies today I will focus on
synthetic biology and I think some rain
started us off on that subject and then
I will talk about gene editing systems I
think a lot of you must have heard about
CRISPR casts and then gene drives and
there are and by the way these are not
the only emerging technologies there's
also artificial intelligence there is
UAVs lots of other technologies that are
coming up very rapidly that could pose
biosecurity risk
so basically synthetic biology brings
engineering and biology together to make
new tanks for new use and new
applications and people have often
called this the design and construction
of new parts devices and systems or the
redesign of existing biological systems
and this is a quick slide that I have to
acknowledge dr. G loon from National
University of Singapore who introduced
this topic to me and this was a this was
a great slide from him which compares
what engineering does when they build a
machine they start with the raw
materials and then they just design you
know resistors capacitors logic gates
circuits and then you have the machine
with with with an application and
similar there are similarly people in
synthetic biology are looking to do that
with the components of a cell we have
enough information now about nucleotides
basically we have sequence information
we have genome sequences for a large
number of genomes and we know how how
genes produce the produce proteins and
then proteins direct biochemical
reactions and then there are networks
and pathways that ultimately lead to
some kind of an output from the cell so
how do we how do we take these various
components and build something that will
be useful to us that's the basic goal of
synthetic biology and there are many
applications to synthetic biology
Submarine in her talk told you about how
they synthesized the poliovirus
starting from pieces of DNA in the lab
and then they gave also did that for the
1918 flu those are example of examples
of synthetic genomics where you start
we'll start from scratch and then you
build a DNA molecule and then you do
what what is called genome engineering
and and and others have also worked on
developing a basic cell a bacterial cell
for example that can be used for
synthetic biology there are of course
you know there are many applications
including cell factories where you use
the cell to produce drugs or you produce
chemicals that are of health useful use
commercial use you can also develop them
for genetic circuits so that you know
you can control what are the outputs of
the cell you can use it as biosensors
for detection work and I will talk to
you a little bit about that soon there
are many interesting applications
including covert 19 detection you can
use them as therapeutic cells
essentially you know gene delivery etc
where you are able to change the course
of a disease through engineering and of
course bio remediation which is of value
to in the environment so these are some
of the these are some of the
applications and this is why this is
such a huge big deal many countries
especially in the ASEAN region have
invested very heavily in synthetic
biology there are a lot of startup
companies that are working on these
kinds of solutions and there are there's
of course academic research that is
supporting these companies and and it's
estimated that the market will be
something like the more than 38 billion
this year
you
so we talked about
reconstituting viruses let me give you
one more example this is this happened a
few years ago a Canadian researchers
developed they basically built the horse
pox virus from scratch and they used
they did this they were at a university
but they did this in using private
funding so in many countries if you use
private funding then you don't have to
do the kind of oversight that sumreen
was talking about in under dual use
research of concern so really I mean the
first time that people heard about this
research was when it was ready for
publication it had already been done and
this was a great concern because you
know Horse Parks is closely related to
smallpox and by by doing this research
and pub wandering to publish it the the
researchers were basically providing a
blueprint for people for labs around the
world to be able to synthesize the
smallpox virus and I think all of us
know why that that is a high-risk
proposition so there there were many
concerns here including what's happening
with private funding that you know does
that is not reviewed by government
agencies for example if this was an NIH
National Institute of Health in the US
funded project then there would have
been oversight mechanisms there would
have been review etc but none of that
was required because this was private
funding and then the researchers
themselves they said well we want to do
this because we don't have access to
small parts it goes as you know smallpox
is only stored at the CDC in the US and
at the vector lab in Russia those are
the only two labs that are allowed to
have smallpox and so they said we don't
have access to that and therefore we
thought let's start here and come up
with new vaccines for smallpox that
would be helpful in case there is
misuse of smallpox unfortunately that
was not a good enough justification if
you again
some rain talked about risk benefit
analysis and really it if you go in and
look at that paper and you read the
commentary on it it's very difficult to
justify what was done but you know
currently there is nothing in place that
prevents something like this from being
these kinds of experiments from being
conducted um I get a lot of interesting
when I talk about this subject and I've
talked about it in many countries and I
get a lot of interesting reactions and
most of the reactions come from senior
researchers and senior members in
government who say who either say oh you
know this kind of research is not
happening in our country or they say we
don't think this research is valuable
for our country and so we will not allow
it
but the what we see is that there is
actually this synthetic biology is very
popular among the next generation of
scientists and there are many things
that are happening like the iGEM
competition which I have highlighted in
this slide the International genetically
engineered machine competition which
happens once a year and it is open to
undergraduates and graduate students
from around the world who can submit
ideas and then carry out the research
and then they go to the iGEM and present
their research and they can be and they
can win awards and and recognition and
so a lot of groups University groups are
very interested in this and this year
it's going to be at the end of October
and I assume you know of course it's
going to be a virtual one this one but
but these competitions are happening and
if you go and look at the iGEM website
you will see that there is participation
from all around the world so even though
you may not be involved in this research
in this kind of research or you don't
know anyone who is your students might
come up to you and say we want to
participate in item and we have an idea
for it and then you have to deal with us
in addition to item
there's also what is called DIY bio or
do-it-yourself biology and you can go to
these websites and check it out these
are groups of people citizen scientists
what we call and these are groups of
people who get together and they you
know do experiments in their garage or
in their they have a small set up and
and they do and they do biotechnology
related experiments and there's a very
popular one called the open insulin
project all over the US and abroad which
is focusing on how do we make insulin so
that you know we don't have to pay the
prices that are charged by their large
biotech companies I went and looked this
morning and there was a very interesting
group called Manila biopunk and they are
a do a DIY group in Manila to their
credit they are very security conscious
and safety conscious and they are very
open on their website and they say that
they do not work with pathogens but it's
interesting to see that you know as I as
I do talks in different parts of the
world and then I I look at the website
regularly to see what new groups there
are there are groups all over the all
over the world and this is actually
happening we may or may not know about
it and and the problem with something
like DIY biology is that it's very
difficult to regulate this and it's very
difficult even to educate these groups
etc because you have to provide first
you have to find them and then you have
to get to know them and get their
confidence only then can you do training
awareness building and some you know a X
some amount of regulatory control
gene-editing this is a very popular
topic and this everyone
I would assume has heard about CRISPR
castes and this is basically a system
that exists naturally in bacteria and it
helps the bacteria fight off infection
by bacteria phages and i have simplified
that here and basically it consists of a
protein that is called cass 9 and then
which you can see here in beige and then
there is a guide RNA or grna and using
these two components you can find any
location in the genome basically you can
recognize you can read DNA sequence and
you can find as the sequence that you
are looking for in the genome inside the
cell once you find it you can cut at a
particular location and then because the
cell will try to repair the cut and we
know how a repair works we can then add
a desired sequence that we want in place
of the cut and that is that you know in
a very simplified way is how gene
editing works so you have the ability to
find any sequence that you want in the
DNA you have the ability to cut that
sequence at a particular location and
then you are able to join it and insert
a sequence that you would like in in
that place so you can imagine you can if
there are mutations that are causing
disease you can repair it and so this is
why CRISPR technology is so exciting and
I will talk about applications in a
minute I have I have over here a link to
a TED talk by the person who discovered
Chris forecast Jennifer Doudna and it's
a great TED talk and I know that you
know for a lot of people
reading publications is not always top
of your list but listening to a TED talk
is is always interesting and engaging so
go check it out it's a great way to
learn how CRISPR works and what are some
of the concerns with CRISPR CRISPR kits
are available for sale from various
companies so you can buy that there are
also online resources for designing your
crisper so basically you have to design
that IDE RNA in such a way that it will
recognize the sequence in the genome
that you are looking for and then there
is also a DIY or Do It Yourself
bacterial gene engineering Chris pocket
that is available for people for people
who are enthusiastic about trying this
out and basically it goes in and makes a
mutation in the in the bacteria in
e.coli non-pathogenic that allows the
bacteria to grow on a different media
and so that way you have basically
changed the genome of the bacteria and
therefore you are getting growth on a
new media
[Music]
so here's one application there are many
diseases and I think people have made an
inventory of about a hundred diseases
that are the result of genetic mutations
and one is blindness and so again there
is now it's been FDA approved to do a
clinical trial for a for a gene delivery
a gene editing system that goes in and
changes the changes of mutation and
corrects it so that people are able to
see again
now that's a you know that's a great
example of the kind of applications that
gene editing provides kind of solutions
there's also a Co bit nineteen testing
diagnostic that has got the approval
from FDA and basically because you can
read the sequence you should be able to
recognize any virus or any bacteria or
other pathogens and so there are a lot
of diagnostic uses for Co for CRISPR
this gene editing technology is people
in plant in the field of Agriculture are
really really excited about it because
you have all kinds of applications where
you can make a disease resistant drought
resistant you know increased yield etc
of of basic foods grains and so from
that even commercial crops and from that
you know that will ensure food security
and that will ensure that we have the
best the best the best plants and see
it's available to to propagate and and
this has always been done by the plant
community they have always been looking
for better qualities of thryce a better
quality of maize etc but now they have a
tool that saves them time effort and
money livestock
Genet gene-editing is very big and it's
easier to do experiments and livestock
so now there are pigs that are resistant
to major diseases PEDV and PRRS and
these are again in the experimental
stages at this point but these pigs a
bit have been created and they are
resistant to the D to the disease
because the receptor which is used by
the virus has been modified in these
pigs in chicken this is not at the
animal stage yet this is in the lab
stage where they have modified one of
the proteins so that the so that the
cell can be resistant to influenza so
you can imagine in the livestock sector
this is huge if these kinds of animals
are allowed and they are found to be
safe this could change you know the
livestock sector forever but there are
concerns with these kinds of things when
you put pressure on the pathogen
remember the seven things that summary
in pointed out the seven areas of
concern for research one of those was
change of host range what if what if as
the result of this there are mutations
in the virus that alter the hostile host
range or that alter transmissibility
pathogenicity so those are the kinds of
concerns and questions that will have to
be asked before these kinds of things
are actually allowed in in mass
production for livestock and of course
we had the worst case scenario happen
when a Chinese scientist edited human
embryos and mutated the ccr5 gene which
helps to make people resistant to HIV
infection and and since then this of
course is a huge moral dilemma because
you can imagine all kinds of designer
babies you can also imagine all kinds of
design or applications for military
purposes etc that can be done if we go
down this
and therefore scientists all over the
world have called for a moratorium on
germline editing in humans then based on
gene editing there is something called a
gene drive now if you look at the left
side of this figure you will see that if
you use CRISPR and you change one copy
of the gene or one chrome one allele as
its labeled here then normally over
generations it takes the pattern of
normal inheritance and all of you have
studied this at some point or the other
in biology and genetics this is this is
normal inheritance where there's that's
where there's a limited probability of
being passed on to the next generation
but then if you do a trick using CRISPR
castes what is called a gene drive where
you are able to modify both copies then
what happens is that over time all of
your progeny will have the mutation will
have the change that you have created so
this gene drives are a way to make
population wide changes and I could go
into this and explain in detail but we
don't have the time here so I leave you
with a very interesting TED talk from
Jennifer Khan that that describes how
gene drives work and this is very
exciting for those people who are
working on vector borne diseases because
in the lab they have been able to create
a gene Drive that basically leads to a
population collapse of mosquitoes where
the female offspring cannot bite and
therefore they cannot produce eggs and
therefore over a few generations the
mosquito population dies out so this you
know this is still in the experimental
lab stage and but people are very
excited about this so a couple of years
ago when there was a
all for a moratorium on gene drives
several countries voted against it
because they are very much interested in
pursuing these technologies to control
vector borne diseases which caused huge
devastation particularly in sub-saharan
Africa
so this is the most important and
interesting piece from my perspective on
how do we control these technologies and
how do we make mitigate the risks so
that we can continue to work on these
technologies and all the amazing
discovery that we are seeing so we don't
want to stop science we don't want to
stop the economy but at the same time we
get it we can be safe and secure so at
the national level at all levels you
need policy there is currently no policy
on this that is satisfactory anywhere in
the world but it's an opportunity for
people to come together and talk about
this and come up with effective policy
at the national level there should also
be a body that will review approve and
provide oversight of this kind of work
now in many countries especially in
ASEAN in Singapore and in Malaysia they
have taken as you know in every country
there is a body the national biosafety
committee etc that looks at GMOs and
reviews all GMO products so that
committee has taken over the research
oversight review and oversight functions
in some countries the problem is that
committee has no experience in biosafety
or biosecurity they have always worked
on GMOs and so now they are trying to
bring in biosafety and biosecurity
experts in order to be able to review
this kind of work because ultimately all
gene-editing falls under genetic
modification of one kind or the other
and there needs to be awareness raising
at the national level institutionally
policies are required some rain
mentioned this and I will reiterate
there needs to be robust institutional
bio risk committee everyone is used to
institutional biosafety committee and
people are quite good at doing biosafety
risk assessments and biosafety met
in biosafety measures in many countries
now because biosafety has been around
for a long time but biosecurity is a
different thing and there aren't there
isn't a lot of expertise and people are
frankly not very comfortable with doing
biosecurity risk assessments or doing
biosecurity mitigation all institutions
of course need a robust biosecurity and
DRM system by risk management system
training education and a culture of
responsibility all of these things we
have previously talked about at the
individual level some countries have a
code of conduct that they have developed
for scientists so that they will comply
with the policy they will comply with
the best practices and also individuals
scientists need to be very comfortable
with risk assessment and mitigation this
is a difficult thing to learn and this
is a difficult thing to do and you know
for those of you who have attended
biosafety and biosecurity talks risk
assessment is usually the toughest
subject area and so but people need to
get better at doing risk assessment and
mitigation and and the other thing I
will say is that so far all of our
biosafety and biosecurity programs are
all focused on life scientists on
biologists or health scientists we need
to bring the engineering community into
this because you will notice that as
more and more people do synthetic
biology and gene editing systems etc for
example if you remember I told you about
the international competition called I
gem if you look at the teams of aij M it
consists of maybe 25% to 50% of the team
is is from the life sciences of biology
or biotechnology the other 50% is from
pure engineering mechanical engineers
you know
materials engineers etc who have no
background whatsoever in safety SiC
biosafety biosecurity or risk assessment
and mitigation measures and they don't
even know that these things exist so we
really need to take everything that we
have been teaching and everything that
we have been learning and expand this
and so for you know organizations like
bee wrap this means outreach to
communities that are beyond what the
current outreach is how do you engage
engineers how do you get them interested
in these kind of things these are all
challenges that all of us face and we
have to think about it and we have to
come up with solutions and again you
know both funding agencies and journals
funding agencies are responsible for
funding the research so they need to
make sure there's sufficient review and
oversight journals of course will
publish the results which can be misused
and therefore they also need peer review
policy peer review and oversight so some
read mention the seven areas of
identifying threats in research I think
the first for the way I have grouped it
over here the first four are related to
pathogens or toxins and so if you're
doing work with pathogens or toxins then
you have to be careful about those
categories and you have some idea
already that you know oh my research
could be do use dual use research of
concern but now we come to these three
areas that I have highlighted in bold
here which is altered the host range of
tropism of an agent or toxin this can be
done unknowingly and this can be done
with this can be an unintended
consequence for example I showed you the
CRISPR chicken or the CRISPR pigs that
are being developed for livestock
industry that could be an example of how
we are going to change the hosts range
of the of the agent this next thing is
interfere with the generation of
immunity to an agent or toxin and this
is very important because we are going
to come up with new and new with newer
solutions to tackle simple thing simple
chronic conditions in the body in the
process we might alter the immune status
of the person and therefore that person
might be far more susceptible to the
dangerous pathogens these are the kinds
of things that we have we have to think
two steps ahead and we have to start
thinking about what will be the what
will be the consequences of our research
and our applications of these
technologies down the road and the city
the number seven is of course connected
to number six the susceptibility of the
host to an agent I will also focus that
I will also reiterate and focus on the
pillars that Martin outlined at the very
beginning of the talk the pillars are
still really important you need to have
you need to think about outsider threats
you need to think about insider threats
you need to have things like inventory
control information control personnel
control physical security transport
security and emergency response plants
all of those things need to be in place
those are all the same best practices if
you are working with synthetic biology
and emerging technologies you need to
have all of those systems in place in
your lab in order to be able to make
sure that you are ensuring biosecurity
with that I thank you for your attention
and I think now we'll take questions
till I pass this on to the beer wrap
committee
okay thank you so much dr. Prasad okay
thank you to all our three speakers so
now we will be reading some questions
that are raised by our participants in
the chat box okay let me try for some
rain sorry sorry okay more or less there
were some common questions for some ring
hello submarine can you dr. Simon can
you hear me yes I can hear you yeah okay
I think most of the questions are
related to the current and Debbie so we
have here some questions from some
Marita Lapita from mr. Tandon Matthew
and marina Bautista so more or less the
questions evolve on with the current
pandemic of copied 19 do you think the
Kovach name team pandemic is a product
of and love a product of a laboratory or
laboratory groans most of the questions
the question either it can it be a
biological weapon or is it in an
intentionally released so they're just
asking for your opinion on this matter
okay
so we cannot say this because there have
been a lot of theories rolling around
the social media and internet that this
could be one of the biological weapons I
will try to clear one thing that
biological weapon is not only the a used
for different purposes for example they
are not only to make like to the time'
connecticut they don't only want
people to die they can be for other
purposes they can be for agriculture
against agriculture against Lance so
these are different types of
bioterrorism event especially if we
specifically talk about covering
nineteen so before there is a prove or
evidence that this could be one of the
biological weapons of lepton virus we
cannot say for sure that whether it is a
biological weapon or not I would like to
press on rice Prasad to comment on it
this as well
thank you something I think as you
mentioned there has been a lot of
speculation in the media and this has
been politicized at various levels but I
will draw your attention to a nature
paper I want to say it was a couple of
months ago now which looked at the
sequences very carefully and looked at
the evolution of the virus and there
they and the authors concluded that in
all probability this is a naturally
occurring virus that its mother nature
that produced this virus and that's how
this virus came into the world and and
then of course you know it started in
animals and then it infected human
beings and then it spread there was
human to human transmission and now it's
all over the world there is no there is
no evidence to suggest that in any way
that this was engineered because if you
if you look at the other corona viruses
and if you look at their sequences and
then you look at this sequence etc there
are ways of telling if this was a
man-made modification and those things
are not present in this virus in this
sequence and so any speculation there's
no basis for any speculation on that
there's also been speculation on whether
this was the result of a biosafety
incident where there was accidental
release and again you know currently
there is no information to suggest
that was the case because at the Wuhan
Institute etc there was no you know
people didn't fall sick and you know
there wasn't and there wasn't a virus
that was you know identical in sequence
etc so um again you know I think as we
speak there is a wh o panel that is
currently in China that is looking into
this and I'm sure they will produce a
report but from all indications this was
Mother Nature I think we underestimate
what Mother Nature is capable of
producing and so you know this was a bad
virus that made its way to humans and
then now it's all over the world so
thank you very much for marina and dr.
Purcell dr. Martin do you have any
comment okay okay so summary we also
have a question here if you have a
research that is sort of to be dual use
research of concern is it advisable to
publish it in an open access journal
it's a principle and risk benefit
assessment whenever you are planning
communication of this type of research
which is a D you are C you always do
risk benefit assessment before planning
your communication so as for your risk
benefit assessment you will decide
whether you are going to publish it in
full or you want to read X of
information or whether you want to
publish it or in open access and to
everyone or you want to extract some
information so this all depends on risk
benefit assessment and this can vary
from one research to another and
majority of the cases they the
scientific community has supported open
publication like they they supported
giving access to all researchers around
the world but definitely it depends upon
the risk as well if the risk of
communicating it in open access general
is very high then definitely the
communication would plan accordingly
so there's no one it varies from one
research to another so there is no one
answer to this question whether you are
will do it always
or you cannot do it okay so thank you
summary so we have here another question
for dr. Prasad from Jade email really of
essential questions regarding genetic
modification under engineering so a
nation should have a policy and
oversight for this technology does the
world have a governing body for this
different nation have different agendas
belief and policy is there an
international body that can control and
is there sanction or penalties when
present so currently there isn't a
dedicated international body for this
but for example if there are experiments
on humans that would be under the
purview of World Health Organization
approvals for animals CRISPR animals and
generated animals etc should in
principle be reviewed by ie and also at
the biological weapons convention which
most countries in the world are
signatories to there is now increasing
awareness and there's increasing talk
about measures that countries should
take and in order to reduce the risk of
all of this but to to answer your
question there is no single body that is
able to review these kinds of things and
and it's going to be very challenging to
do that because remember that remember
that if you require lengthy review
process and approval processes and
things like that that will significantly
affect your bio economy and so no
country wants to you know be
disadvantaged when it comes to the
economy and when it comes to growing
biotechnology so the solutions will have
to be it
it will have to be carefully calibrated
and this is one of the challenges that
we face okay thank you
so we have here a very interesting
question which can be answered by dr.
Prasad and the rest of the speakers do
you think the moral restrictions hinder
the progress of gene-editing science
what is your personal take about the
application of gene editing on humans do
you approve why or why not
this is from Lee Marvin okay I can start
and then I'll pass it on to my
colleagues
so bioethics is critically important I
think that's what you mean by moral
responsibility ethics is not something
that everyone learns in school or in
college or later on at the job site
ethics is also you know I believe me I
have actually taken ethics classes that
have been so boring that you know it's
hard to stay awake the way that ethics
are currently taught and so we have to
we have to make changes we have to make
changes to make sure that people have
when they are thinking about ethics they
have real-life examples real-life
dilemmas like the one that summary
imposed you know when when people that
this influence the research and they
wanted to publish it that was also an
ethics question should that kind of to
ask the question should research be
conducted or should research not be
conducted it's yes it's a risk benefit
analysis but it's also a bioethics
analysis you know and and especially
given all the controversies that are
taking place around kovat 19 whether it
was man-made whether it was an accident
etc more and more those of us who do
scientific research will have to explain
to our communities what we are doing how
risky it is and what may
do we have in place to avoid the risk
and so ethics is a big part of this and
so we really have to we really have to
come together and invest in this and
when it comes to human and gene editing
I think that you know there are two
types here one is germline editing where
essentially you are affecting germline
cells and therefore you are affecting
future generations I am in favor of a
moratorium on that I don't think we are
in a place where you know we should be
trying those kinds of experiments but on
the other hand the example that I showed
you where you can correct a person's
vision by taking the cells modifying
repairing the genetic mutation and
putting it back or you know doing it in
vivo those kinds of things should be
allowed in my mind because a if you make
that change that does not get passed on
so those are that's the distinction I
would make some reen how do you see this
as dual use research of concern I think
because their research if there's not
one person can master in all types of
research and usually we see that maybe
code of conduct development of code of
conduct in each and every organization
can help people understand the ethical
values but and what they are needed to
or require to do but this is also there
is also one thing can add that code of
conduct always helps those who want to
follow it it is not for people who don't
follow it the code of conduct also have
some limitations so maybe one thing can
be developing a code of conduct in each
organization and following it maybe you
can develop a national code of conduct
and then institution code of conduct for
this particular type of research which
is being conducted in all universities
okay so for thank you very much to all
our speakers and thank you for the
participants for all your questions for
those whose questions were not read we
will try to collate all your questions
so the speakers can address it later and
thank you so much for your active
participation in jury engaging open
forum thank you so much so will now
proceed to the synthesis of the session
so the next session is indeed very
interesting and fruitful so you would
like to thank when it once again our
three speakers for discussing the
biosecurity with the dual trends and
emerging technologies so doctor Moreno
our first speaker highlights the basic
concepts of biosafety and biosecurity as
well as mentioned the milestones OB
rapid vomit in the last decade here in
the Philippines he also presented the
new pillars of biosecurity emphasizing
the dual use research of concern and
emerging technologies as a way of
introducing the next two topics of our
speakers
so dr. summary discussed the concepts of
dual-use research of concerns she also
showed us why is it very important to to
know about it and how to identify its
categories and in the event that we know
we have dual use research of concern
she also discussed on what to do about
it how to do risk benefit assessment and
how to develop a risk mitigation and
communication and responsible
communication plan and lastly dr. Prasad
introduced to us synthetic biology and
its applications as well as on how to
mitigate the risk of the applications of
synthetic biology and how to strengthen
biosecurity measures against the new
biosecurity tracks so indeed the three
talks are very timely during this time
with a current situation that we have
synthetic biology as well as dual use
research of concern as it has its
benefits as well as the risk so our
speakers of discuss on water
the risks and the benefits and how to
make that the next session will create a
big impact on our own facilities and our
own institutions on the way we see
biosecurity in this modern age so thank
you very much
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