GenoTHREAT is designed to detect bioterrorism threats arising from the use of synthetic DNA. The research team that developed this new software tool recently published a paper in the March issue of Nature Biotechnology. From the March 21, 2011 news item on Nanowerk (****http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=20626.php),
GenoTHREAT implements the “best match” screening protocol method recommended by the federal government to minimize the risk that unauthorized individuals or those with malicious intent will obtain toxins and other potentially dangerous materials from DNA synthesis providers. The process of developing GenoTHREAT allowed Peccoud’s team to conduct a rigorous bioinformatic analysis of the strengths and limitations of the best match method which was published in the March issue of Nature Biotechnology (“Strengths and limitations of the federal guidance on synthetic DNA”).
“It was natural to start developing GenoTHREAT around the federal guidance on synthetic DNA,” said [Jean] Peccoud. “Since this regulation is only one of many regulations and policies that providers of synthetic DNA need to comply with, our current efforts aim at developing a more comprehensive biosecurity solution that can be customized for a variety of users.”
An abstract for the paper is available (http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v29/n3/full/nbt.1802.html) but the full paper is behind a paywall. You can find out more about Peccoud’s research work and get information about how to download GenoTHREAT (http://www.genocad.com/software/genothreat).
Here’s a figure that shows GenoTHREAT’s screening algorithm,
- GenoTHREAT Sequence screening algorithm figure from “Strengths and limitations of the federal guidance on synthetic DNA” in Nature Biotechnology, Nature Biotechnology Volume: 29, Pages: 208–210 (2011) DOI: 0.1038/nbt.1802
The number of synthetic biology stories I’ve been stumbling across lately is noticeable and since synthetic biology is not one of my main areas of interest, I’m guessing there’s a concerted communications effort to rouse interest in the topic.
Don’t forget, Friday, March 25, 2011, there’s a webcast about Synthetic biology ethics, details are in my March 17, 2011 post here: http://www.frogheart.ca/?p=3128.
**** I’m sorry, the WYSIWYG linking function is not working for me and I don’t have time to figure out the HTML coding.