Word: bacterium
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...basic molecule of life, might accidentally lead to the creation of new, uncontrollable strains of disease-carrying bacteria. Now most experts have decided they greatly overstated the dangers. But many laymen have remained frightened ever since research at Harvard designed to create new combinations of DNA in the bacterium Escherichia coli K12, or E. coli for short, stirred passionate debate last year (TIME cover, April 18). Last week, after long hearings, Congress was scheduled to act on two bills seeking to control such research. The rush to adjourn forced a postponement of action until after the summer recess...
Experiments with the lowly E. coli bacterium hold a promise of many marvels, including food crops that require little fertilizer and the production of new tools for the understanding of disease, perhaps including cancer. Pursuing such research, biologists are naturally loath to become ensnared in more Government regulations. They point out that governmental regulation poses inherent dangers to the freedom of inquiry that science requires. Comments Biochemist Robert White of the National Academy of Sciences: "I hate to see the camel's nose under the tent...
...yield a virtually unlimited supply of the hormone, which is of vital importance to many diabetics. Last week scientists at the University of California in San Francisco reported that they had taken an important first step toward that goal. Using the bold new technology, they not only gave a bacterium potential insulin-making capability but also got the bug to reproduce millions of precise carbon copies of itself, all with the same new characteristic...
...this reason and because of the increasing demand for the hormone, which the body needs to turn sugar into energy, drug companies seeking alternative sources have pinned some of their hopes on recombinant DNA technology. By inserting the human insulin gene into the DNA of the common intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli, they could, in theory, endow the bug with the capacity to make human insulin...
After a few more genetic refinements, Curtiss had developed what seemed to be a safe research bacterium. But a major problem remained. Even dying E. coli bacteria can conjugate with healthy ones, transferring their possibly dangerous genetic material in the process. Thus an escaped and dying bug might still pose a danger. Again Curtiss worked his genetic magic, this time taking away from the microbe the ability to produce the chemical thymine, which is a component of the bug's own DNA. Without thymine supplied in the lab, the E. coli could not pass its genes on to healthy...