normdoering
Posts: 287
Joined: July 2005
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| Quote (Pastor Bentonit @ Oct. 20 2005,10:22) | | I take it your "bad guys" donīt want to order a traceable whole-virus sequence mail-order...sensible, even if not just any molecular sleuth would be able to easily get past customer-synthesis lab confidentiality. |
"customer-synthesis lab confidentiality" ??
Thanks for reminding me.
That means you'd need some sort of search warrent or a computer hacker.
"...who would take the risk?"
Someone desperate using someone well paid.
"Note that synthesizing viral nucleic acids from scratch is subject to some size constraints (smaller virus genome=easier in principle, large enough=not possible today)."
What are the limits today? Can you express it in a library and book metaphor? If we think of the gene sequences as letters in a book spelling out:
AGC CTG GGC TAT GCA...etc.
Would a complex virus fit into a readable book? An encyclopedia? A library? Could one write a books worth of DNA?
"... more interesting question implied in your post is, how does one custom-design such a viral genome to i) target the brain and ii) produce a predictable effect?"
By studying virii that do attack the brain. By learning the language of viral life better than anyone knows it today.
I'm finding stuff like this:
http://www.dukemednews.org/av/medminute.php?id=2111
"A team of researchers at Duke University Medical Center recently crossed the virus that causes polio with the virus that causes the common cold. They found that this new genetically engineered virus can kill malignant brain tumor cells in lab mice within six to eight hours, without any damage to normal cells."
What I am assuming is that researchers also discover a lot of negative effects they don't report in the literature because they do have bio-weapon potential.
And remember, this is fiction: reality doesn't necessarily have to get in the way. It just has to seem real enough to scare fairly knowledgable readers.
"Hope that helps."
It did, thanks.
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