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Science 1 December 2000:
Vol. 290. no. 5497, p. 1665
DOI: 10.1126/science.290.5497.1665b
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ScienceScope
CREDIT: WOLFGANG KAEHLER/CORBIS
Former Soviet bioweapons researchers are teaming up with a young U.S. biotech firm to hunt for exotic organisms in Russia. Fueled by $1 million in start-up money from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the partners will set up the Ecological Biotrade Center to scour Russian ecosystems for interesting organisms in such locations as Lake Baikal (above), the Volga River, and the Kamchatka Peninsula. The players include Diversa Corp. of San Diego, the Institute of the Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms in Pushchino, south of Moscow, and three other Russian institutes. Diversa, known for collecting the DNA of a heat-tolerant microbe found in a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, has sent or plans to send bioprospectors to Alaska, Australia, Bermuda, Costa Rica, Iceland, Indonesia, and Mexico. The potential applications span everything from pharmaceuticals, to agriculture, to industrial chemistry, says spokesperson Hillary Theakston. DOE's William Toth says the department wants to keep potential bioweapons experts employed in peaceful work and help them find a sustainable source of income. The work will start next month.
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