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A move by President Biden aims to create

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new standards for the safety and security of

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mail order genetic material. By Emily

1:18

Mullen. The

1:21

White House has issued new rules

1:23

aimed at companies that manufacture synthetic

1:25

DNA after years of warnings that

1:28

a pathogen made with mail order

1:30

genetic material could accidentally or intentionally

1:32

spark the next pandemic. The

1:35

rules released on April 29 are

1:37

the result of an executive order

1:39

signed by President Joe Biden last

1:41

fall to establish new standards for

1:43

AI safety and security, including AI

1:45

applied to biotechnology. Artificially

1:48

generated DNA allows researchers to do

1:50

all sorts of things. Develop diagnostic

1:52

tests, make beneficial enzymes to eat

1:55

up plastic, or engineer potent antibodies

1:57

to treat disease without having to be used for the use

1:59

of a computer. having to extract natural

2:01

sequences from organisms. Need

2:03

to study a rare type of bacteria? Instead

2:06

of going out into the field to

2:08

collect a sample, its genetic sequence can

2:10

simply be ordered from a DNA synthesis

2:12

company instead. Synthesizing

2:15

DNA has been possible for decades, but

2:17

it's become increasingly easier, cheaper, and faster

2:19

to do so in recent years thanks

2:21

to new technology that can print custom

2:23

gene sequences. Now dozens

2:26

of companies around the world make and

2:28

ship synthetic nucleic acids en masse, and

2:31

with AI it's becoming possible to create

2:33

entirely new sequences that don't exist in

2:35

nature including those that could pose a

2:38

threat to humans or other living things.

2:41

The concern has been for some time that

2:43

as gene synthesis has gotten better and cheaper,

2:46

and as more companies appear and more

2:48

technology streamline the synthesis of nucleic acids,

2:51

it is possible to de

2:53

novo create organisms, particularly viruses,

2:55

says Tim Inglesby, an epidemiologist

2:57

and director of the Johns

2:59

Hopkins Center for Health Security.

3:02

It's conceivable that a bad actor could

3:04

make a dangerous virus from scratch by

3:06

ordering its genetic building blocks and assembling

3:09

them into a whole pathogen. In

3:11

2017, Canadian researchers revealed that

3:14

they reconstructed the extinct horsepox

3:16

virus for $100,000 using

3:18

mail-order DNA, raising the possibility that the

3:21

same could be done for smallpox, a

3:23

deadly disease that was eradicated in 1980.

3:27

The new rules aim to prevent

3:29

a similar scenario. It asks DNA

3:32

manufacturers to screen purchase orders to

3:34

flag so-called sequences of concern and

3:36

assess customer legitimacy. Sequences

3:39

of concern are those that contribute to

3:41

an organism's toxicity or ability to cause

3:43

disease. For now, the

3:45

rules only apply to scientists or

3:48

companies that receive federal funding. They

3:50

must order synthetic nucleic acids from

3:52

providers that implement these practices. Inglesby

3:55

says it's still a big step

3:57

forward since about three-quarters of the

3:59

U.S. customer based for synthetic DNA

4:01

are federally funded entities. But

4:04

it means that scientists or organizations

4:06

with private sources of funding aren't

4:08

beholden to using companies with these

4:10

screening procedures. Many

4:12

DNA providers already follow screening guidelines issued by

4:14

the Department of Health and Human Services in

4:17

2010. About

4:20

80% of the industry has joined

4:22

the International Gene Synthesis Consortium, which

4:24

pledges to vet orders, but these

4:26

measures are both voluntary and not

4:29

all companies comply. Kevin

4:31

Sleeingolts, founder and CEO of New

4:33

York-based Acclid, a company that offers

4:35

screening software to DNA providers, says

4:37

he's glad to see the White

4:39

House taking action. While the

4:42

industry has done a pretty good job of putting

4:44

some protocols in place, it's by and large not

4:46

consistent, he says. Still, he

4:48

hopes Congress will adopt formal legislation

4:51

by requiring all DNA providers to

4:53

screen orders. Last year,

4:55

a bipartisan group of legislators introduced the

4:57

Securing Gene Synthesis Act to mandate screening

4:59

more broadly, but the bill has yet

5:01

to advance. Emily LaProust,

5:04

CEO of Twist Bioscience, a

5:06

San Francisco DNA synthesis company,

5:08

welcomes regulation. We recognize that

5:10

DNA is dual-use technology. It's

5:13

like dynamite. You can build tunnels, but you can

5:15

also kill people, she says. Collectively,

5:17

we have a responsibility to promote the

5:19

ethical use of DNA. Twist

5:22

has been screening sequences in customers since 2016

5:24

when it first started selling nucleic

5:27

acids to customers. A

5:29

few years ago, the company hired

5:31

outside consultants to test its screening

5:33

processes. The consultants set up fake

5:35

customer names and surreptitiously ordered sequences

5:38

of concern. LaProust

5:40

says the company successfully flagged many of

5:42

those orders, but in some cases, there

5:44

was internal disagreement on whether the sequences

5:47

requested were worrisome or not. The

5:49

exercise helps Twist adopt new protocols. For

5:52

instance, it used to only screen DNA

5:54

sequences 200 base pairs or longer. A

5:57

base pair is a unit of two DNA letters

5:59

that pair together. Now it screens

6:01

ones that are at least 50 base

6:03

pairs to prevent customers from shopping around for

6:05

smaller sequences to assemble together. While

6:08

Twist has tightened its own screening measures, LaProuse

6:11

still worries about some hypothetical scenarios

6:13

that are beyond her control. For

6:16

instance, a state actor with bad intentions could

6:18

start making their own gene sequences. Probably

6:21

the biggest risk is if a state wants

6:23

to build their own DNA synthesis capability, she

6:25

says, they may be able to

6:27

do it because states have vast resources. Thanks

6:31

for listening to Wired. My name is Zeke Robinson

6:33

and for more stories like this one visit us

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at wired.com. Like

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