Laborities On the Front Lines

Sunday | December 9, 2001

12/03/2001

By ALEXANDRA WITZE / The Dallas Morning News

First in an occasional series

On one front of America's new war, Texans are in the trenches. Battles on this front take place daily – not in faraway mountainous terrains, but in scientific laboratories with living cells, chemicals, and computer chips. Scientists around the state are marshaling the weapons of biology, chemistry, and physics to defend against the deadly toxins and poison gases that terrorists might deploy."If we want to find the antidotes to some of these things, we're going to have to do science," says Dr. Robert Shope, a pathologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. "We want the potential terrorists to know that we're getting something that will make her or his attack worthless."

Texas scientists are crafting some of the latest anti-terrorist tools, including:

An electronic "tongue" for tasting biological and chemical agents in the air. A Kleenex-like wipe to keep chemicals from burning a soldier's body.

A drug to block deadly viruses from latching onto and infecting cells.

Ideas for a Star Trek-like "tricorder" that would monitor disease.

Texas universities have long worked to fight terrorism, but since Sept. 11 they have ramped up their efforts.

In Galveston, UTMB has established a new $11 million Center for Biodefense to consolidate its experts on deadly viruses and bacteria.

In College Station, Texas A&M University is proposing to lead a $10 million national effort in battling agricultural terrorism.

In Austin, the University of Texas has stepped up the pace of a $5 million statewide initiative to fight biological and chemical terrorism.

Science must push for radical new technologies, says Stephen Johnston, a molecular biologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

"If there's a time when people are open for that kind of thing," he says, "it's now."

"After Sept. 11 our importance was brought into real sharp focus," adds Lou Chiodo, a pharmacologist at Texas Tech University, another leading player in the research. "We consider ourselves fortunate to have a couple years' head start."

Nationally, some experts compare the new drive to the Manhattan Project, the super-secret effort to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. But this time, the research isn't hidden among New Mexico's mesas. Much of it takes place in university and other noncommercial laboratories.

The new research fills a gap left by other agencies that focus on applied and not basic science, says Dr. David Walker, a pathologist at UTMB.

For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta looks after public health and investigates outbreaks, such as the recent anthrax attacks. The U.S. Army's medical research facility in Fort Detrick, Md., works on protecting soldiers.

That leaves one critical area untouched, says Dr. Walker: "Who's doing the basic science?"

In part, Texas.

The University of Texas at Austin, along with Texas Tech and the University of South Florida, has assembled one of the nation's leading counterterrorism programs.

"There really isn't anything like it," says Steven Kornguth, the program's director.

The program hopes to improve the public-health response to terrorism – in part, by funding basic research on vaccines and sensors, things that can fight or signal the presence of biological or chemical agents.

Dallas' Dr. Johnston is part of the program, as is Dr. Shope, who is associate director of the new biodefense center in Galveston.

Much of the money for these projects comes from the federal government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, famous for funding the basic science

that led to the Internet. The agency backs high-risk ideas with the potential for a huge defense payoff.

For instance, Dr. Johnston receives DARPA money for two unusual projects. One uses computers to try to figure out which genetic fragments of a virus or bacterium could be used to make an ultrafast vaccine against a disease. The other project is Dr. Johnston's version of Star Trek's tricorder: a device that would take a daily "biosignature" of a person's health and monitor it for changes that could indicate sickness.

"There isn't a lot of data to tell us that it really will work, but people are interested enough that they're trying to look," Dr. Johnston says.

DARPA projects are on the fringe but potentially revolutionary. Unlike traditional projects, which are often led by one researcher in one laboratory, DARPA practically requires scientists to work across disciplines.

Therein lies the promise of the new research, says Dr. Shope – unorthodox ideas springing from new collaborations.

"You don't see this too often, people working together rather than competing with each other," he says.

At least three DARPA projects are under way in Galveston. Dr. Shope heads a group of virologists, pathologists, structural biologists, and chemists. They have cooked up new chemicals to protect against the assault of pathogenic bacteria and viruses.

The work starts with designing new molecules to block the action of deadly organisms. (Putting sulfur atoms in just the right place, for instance, can make a particular molecule more likely to attach to a pathogen and render it impotent.) Then the chemists manufacture the new compound, and biologists test it in animals.

Ongoing experiments are looking at how well one of the compounds works to fight an animal version of Lassa fever, a deadly hemorrhagic disease. Other UTMB researchers are concocting different strategies in the fight against potential bioweapons – including the brain fever called Venezuelan equine encephalitis.

Creativity is one of the first requirements for such research.

"You can't just go down to the hardware store and get what you need for a biothreat," says Dr. Johnston.

Instead, scientists must make new materials from scratch.

In Austin, scientists and engineers are collaborating to build the electronic "tongue," a sliver of silicon wafer studded with beads. Ideally, the tongue would carry hundreds of tiny beads on its surface; each bead would react to a certain environmental change, such as a change in acidity or the presence of a particular chemical.

So far the tongue works only if scientists dip it in liquid to test for a few select chemicals. But eventually, the gadget might be engineered to detect biological or chemical weapons that a soldier might encounter on the battlefield.

Texas A&M scientists are also working to help soldiers on the front lines. Chemist Jim Wild, for instance, has made enzymes that help neutralize the effects of certain chemical weapons, such as nerve gas. He is developing a small towelette, coated with the enzymes, that could be wiped over the skin to protect it from harm.

"Think of it like a sunscreen," Dr. Wild says. Early tests show that the material seems safe and is not likely to cause allergic reactions.

Many of these lab breakthroughs may eventually help the broader population, says Dr. Kornguth.

The electronic tongue could become a home environmental monitor; the chemical wipe could be used to protect industrial workers. And the vaccine and sensor research might help the public health system better respond to ordinary disease outbreaks, he says.

Together, the new Texas research may bring science to the forefront of public attention.

"Clearly this is on the minds of many Americans," says David Gorenstein, a chemist at UTMB. "It's no longer an obscure research field."

Future installments in this series, about Texas laboratories' efforts to combat biological and chemical terrorism, will appear in the Discoveries pages of Texas Living on Mondays.