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Schoenhaut's company is developing a treatment for Hepatitis C based on RNA interference, a molecular technology used to silence specific genes. But the way the drug is made -- via replication of DNA segments in bacteria -- means it's difficult to grow with high fidelity in bacteria. "We want the lowest potential for mutation, and [Blattner's] strains provide that," says Schoenhaut. "I think his approach of making bacteria safer and more streamline will be important in making the next phase therapeutics."
Blattner has founded a company, Scarab Genomics, based in Madison, WI, to develop and market the stripped-down bugs. Harvard's Church says he thinks academics are unlikely to adopt the bacteria if they are costly or require licenses that claim future commercial rights. Academic scientists can buy the bugs with no license for some research, but need a license for commercial research or production, says Blattner.
Guest (Robert Cooper)
E Coli working for pharaseuticals
Excuse me for being a novice but I thought E Coli virus was one if not the most dangerous on Planet Earth! Granted we can use things that seem bad to use them for good like nitro. But how can we harness E. Coli to use it for good? Isn't it a danger to our environment?
Guest (Skeet)
its the most deadly virus of them all!!!! Ludicris I say
Guest
Most e. coli aren't harmful - a rare strain called E.coli O157:H7 is the one that causes health problems in humans. The strains used in research and manufacturing are the harmless variety.
Guest (Ed White)
E. coli isn't particularly dangerous
First: E. coli is a bacterium, not a virus.
Second, as pointed out in this thread, only strain 0157:H57 is particularly dangerous. In fact, almost all humans have E. coli in their digestive tract.
I believe you have E. coli confused with the Ebola virus, which is an extremely dangerous pathogen. Ebola-Marburg virus causes a hemorrhagic fever with an extremely high fatality rate - somewhere around 80%.
Guest (Leprechaun)
you'd be very sick without E Coli
The reason it's such a common lab bacterium is because you only need to wipe your butt to get some. They may be the most common of all the bacteria that live in people.
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Guest (dan)
very dangerous technology because you never
know how these creatures will react with the environment.
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Guest (Sean)
Not overly so.
Bacteria are among the most mutation-prone organisms on the planet, and you never know how *any* mutation is going to interact with the environment. As the article mentioned, it's not just random bits that flip with bacterial DNA, either; they can gain whole, pre-existing genetic sequences from other organisms.
In this partuicular case, it's probably safer than most; they're taking stuff out, not putting it in. I'm not saying the absence of a gene can't make something harmful, but it's still lowering the total pool of what it can do, on a molecular level, rather than adding to it. This is particularly true here because they are actually removing traits that would enable it to survive outside the lab (such as the swimming apparatus).
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