Word: bacteria
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Known as granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, the drug boosted the victims' count of white blood cells, the body's primary defense against infection, after just ten days of treatment. The additional cells could help AIDS patients fight off bacteria, viruses and other life-threatening microbes. Groopman believes GM-CSF could one day be used to treat a variety of diseases. "This is the first time that anyone has been able to regulate the white- blood-cell count in man," he says. "There are implications for cancer patients and people with bone-marrow disorders...
...Strobel admitted he had injected the elms with genetically altered bacteria in an attempt to treat them for Dutch elm disease. The experiment had shown encouraging results, but it was, he acknowledged, an act of civil disobedience that was in violation of Environmental Protection Agency regulations. After receiving a reprimand from the EPA and a warning that any similar experiments in the next year must be co-sponsored by another investigator and receive special permission from the university, Strobel requested that the elms be disposed of to end controversy over his actions. His troubles, however, were not yet over...
Disturbing new evidence emerged last week that Strobel had released altered bacteria into the environment prior to his experiment with the elms. In an Aug. 10 letter to the EPA, Strobel admitted he had released a "new strain of Rhizobium meliloti . . . in South Dakota, Montana, California and Nebraska in 1983-84." The Rhizobium had been altered to enhance nitrogen fixation in alfalfa plants. Though it is not yet clear that those experiments violated regulations in force at the time, they are under investigation by Montana State...
Antibiotechnology activists were infuriated with Strobel's actions and with his mild punishment. They claim that scientists could unwittingly unleash destructive mutant bacteria into the environment, a worry that is considered alarmist by most scientists. Says Jeremy Rifkin, a Washington lobbyist: "We cannot expect the scientists to police themselves. They feel they are above...
...service to humanity." Strobel is a recognized expert on plant pathogens who once wrote that his career choice "was brought on by a desire as a teenager to understand why the chestnut trees had died in my home state of Ohio." He has argued all along that his bacteria posed no threat...