美国家情报总监转基因基因组编辑技术是大规模杀伤武器

2016-5-6 14:34| 发布者: 风在手| 查看: 3586| 评论: 4|原作者: 安托尼奥·拉格拉多

摘要: 詹姆斯·克拉珀，美国国家情报总监，2016年2月9日，在美国情报界年度世界范围危险评估报告中，将“基因编辑”列入构成“大规模杀伤武器与扩散”的威胁清单。

该报告是中央情报局、国家安全局，以及暑假其他的美国间谍与证据收集作业“集体智慧”的非保密分级版。

Although the report doesn’t mention CRISPR by name, Clapper clearly had the newest and the most versatile of the gene-editing systems in mind. The CRISPR technique’s low cost and relative ease of use—the basic ingredients can be bought online for $60—seems to have spooked intelligence agencies.

尽管这个报告没有具体提到CRISPR的名称，克拉珀清楚考虑的是基因编辑最新与最最多才多艺的基因编辑系统。CRISPR技术的低成本与相对容易使用 -- 最基本的部分在网上只要60美元就可以买到 --似乎吓坏了美国的情报机构。

“Research in genome editing conducted by countries with different regulatory or ethical standards than those of Western countries probably increases the risk of the creation of potentially harmful biological agents or products,” the report said.

“对基因编辑进行研究的国家，其监管与伦理标准与西方国家有很大不同，这可能增加创造潜在有害生物剂或产品的风险。”

The concern is that biotechnology is a “dual use” technology—meaning normal scientific developments could also be harnessed as weapons. The report noted that new discoveries “move easily in the globalized economy, as do personnel with the scientific expertise to design and use them.”

这种担心来自生物技术是一种“双用”技术 -- 这意味着正常的科学发展也可以利用作为武器。该报告指出新的发现“可以在全球化经济中很容易移动，设计与使用它们的科学专长人员在全球化经济中也很容易移动。”

Clapper didn’t lay out any particular bioweapons scenarios, but scientists have previously speculated about whether CRISPR could be used to make “killer mosquitoes,” plagues that wipe out staple crops, or even a virus that snips at people’s DNA.

克拉珀没有列出任何特定的生物武器场景，但是科学家们以前已经推测CRISPR是否可以用来制造“杀手蚊子”、摧毁主要农作物的瘟疫，,甚至剪切人类DNA的病毒。

“Biotechnology, more than any other domain, has great potential for human good, but also has the possibility to be misused,” says Daniel Gerstein, a senior policy analyst at RAND and a former under secretary at the Department of Homeland Defense. “We are worried about people developing some sort of pathogen with robust capabilities, but we are also concerned about the chance of misutilization. We could have an accident occur with gene editing that is catastrophic, since the genome is the very essence of life.”

“生物技术，比任何其他领域，具有对人类好的方面很大的潜力，但是也具有被误用的很大潜力”，丹尼尔·格斯泰因，兰德公司一位高级政策分析员与美国国土防御部副国务卿说。“我们担心有人可能开发某种有强大功能的病原体，但是我们也担心错误应用的可能性。由于基因组是生命的本质，我们可能发生基因编辑造成的灾难性事故。”

Piers Millet, an expert on bioweapons at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., says Clapper’s singling out of gene editing on the WMD list was “a surprise,” since making a bioweapon—say, an extra-virulent form of anthrax—still requires mastery of a “wide raft of technologies.”

皮尔斯·米勒特，华盛顿特区Woodrow Wilson中心的生物武器专家说，克拉珀单独将“基因编辑”挑出来列入“大规模杀伤武器”清单是“令人惊讶”，因为制作一张生物武器 -- 例如，一种额外致命的炭疽病毒 -- 仍然需要掌握“广泛的一系列技术”。

Development of bioweapons is banned by the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, a Cold War–era treaty that outlawed biological warfare programs. The U.S., China, Russia, and 172 other countries have signed it. Millet says that experts who met in Warsaw last September to discuss the treaty felt a threat from terrorist groups was still remote, given the complexity of producing a bioweapon. Millet says the group concluded that “for the foreseeable future, such applications are only within the grasp of states.”

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