Posted: 01/27/2011 01:00:00 AM MST
Updated: 01/27/2011 06:15:57 AM MST
CSU biologist June Medford looks at re-engineered plants such as arabidopsis as a tool in to the war on terrorism. The presence of potentially deadly vapors causes such plants to turn white. (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post)
Military and Homeland Security research directors on Wednesday said they envision wide applications for the genetically modified plants positioned in buildings, war zones and cities where terrorists could set up covert bombmaking factories.
"If you take something into Denver International Airport, like an explosive for a plane, my plants are going to turn white," said Medford, 52. "That's going to get the security guys on
you."
But none are deployed yet. And the plants, as currently engineered, take more than three hours to change colors.
Medford's creations contain genes resistant to antibiotics and herbicides. Today they're growing inside refrigerator-sized chambers in a locked, limited-access lab on CSU's Fort Collins campus. Federal laws regulate genetic modification of plants; the U.S. Department of Agriculture is charged with ensuring the plants are not released.
Medford said she's working on ways to remove objectionable genes and also to sterilize the modified plants so they could not spread on their own.
The Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, launched Medford's plant research in 2003 with a $500,000 grant. The Office of Naval Research in 2006 kicked in $1 million. The Department of Homeland Security also funded early research.
Now the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency has granted $7.9 million for Medford and her team of about 30 researchers to speed up plant detection and color change and, then, to test "plant sentinels" outside
the lab.
There's also the problem of genetically modified plants spreading on their own or cross-pollinating with other plants.
Medford said she's working on ways to remove objectionable genes and also to sterilize the modified plants so they could not spread on their own.
The Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, launched Medford's plant research in 2003 with a $500,000 grant. The Office of Naval Research in 2006 kicked in $1 million. The Department of Homeland Security also funded early research.
Now the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency has granted $7.9 million for Medford and her team of about 30 researchers to speed up plant detection and color change and, then, to test "plant sentinels" outside
Peter Bowerman, a post-doctoral researcher at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, takes a look at arabidopsis stored in a biology lab on campus. (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post)
Homeland Security officials said strategic placement of the plants could help reach a goal of deploying a decentralized, nationwide system for detecting explosives.
"Because you could engineer these plants any way you want, you could make them highly selective," said Doug Bauer, the Homeland Security explosives research program manager in Washington, D.C.
"Our hope is if these plants could be located ubiquitously, we might be able to detect explosives at the point they are being assembled," he said. "You would have a much greater opportunity for first-responders to interdict and disrupt that activity."
Homeland Security agents are interested in adaptations so that only agents using infrared technology could see plant color changes, Bauer said.
Another possibility: Police could use the plants to enforce drug prohibitions, Bauer said. "Such sentinels," he said, "could be very inexpensive."
Military strategists are brainstorming applications aimed at protecting soldiers from roadside bombs and other perils of war.
"You could potentially have potted plants that you could bring someplace," said Linda Chrisey, bioscience technology program director in the Office of Naval Research.
"You might have the plants on a convoy route," Chrisey said, "or in buildings you were concerned about" — as well as in areas littered with land mines: "If you didn't quite know where things were buried, you could use the plants to help alert you to which areas you need to concentrate on."
The plants also could be deployed to sniff for greenhouse gases and other industrial pollution.
Medford and colleagues at Duke University and the University of Washington began their work using computers to redesign naturally occurring plant proteins called receptors.
Then Medford started dipping plants in a bacteria solution, which allowed them to pick up the custom receptors. Once a plant's genetic structure has been altered, its receptors can detect a pollutant or explosive in air or soil near the plant. When a plant detects the substance, new internal signaling causes the plant to lose its green color and turn white.
Peer-reviewed research results are to be published his week in the science journal PLoS ONE.
While her plants respond to an explosive in hours, researchers said improvements in progress probably will reduce the response time to a few minutes.
"Having cellphones, having social media, having the Internet — this is empowering people," Medford said. "What I see our technology doing is empowering people to know if their air and water is clean."
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
• Examining issues of human cognition in relation to individual decision-making under stress and team pattern-recognition under stress.
• Developing playing cards with messages on how American soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan can help preserve precious antiquities (program has expanded to Egypt and the Middle East region).
• Developing military radar system that will track enemy movement through cities filled with tall buildings, trees and other obstructions.
• Advancing fundamental understanding and development of interference coatings for high-energy lasers.
• Conducting ongoing atmospheric and hydrologic research that supports U.S. military efforts through Center for Geosciences/Atmospheric Research. (Provided cave-detection technology for anti-Taliban operations within a month of 9/11 and helped address how clouds and ice affect certain military airspace zones.)
• Identifying and isolating chemicals that some invasive weeds are known to release to gain footing over native plants and researching the use of those chemicals as natural herbicides, while identifying plants that are resistant to those chemicals.
• Creating a new class of adaptable computer systems capable of processing large files and complex data sets at speeds up to 600 times faster than the quickest Pentium chip.
"Because you could engineer these plants any way you want, you could make them highly selective," said Doug Bauer, the Homeland Security explosives research program manager in Washington, D.C.
"Our hope is if these plants could be located ubiquitously, we might be able to detect explosives at the point they are being assembled," he said. "You would have a much greater opportunity for first-responders to interdict and disrupt that activity."
Homeland Security agents are interested in adaptations so that only agents using infrared technology could see plant color changes, Bauer said.
Another possibility: Police could use the plants to enforce drug prohibitions, Bauer said. "Such sentinels," he said, "could be very inexpensive."
Military strategists are brainstorming applications aimed at protecting soldiers from roadside bombs and other perils of war.
"You could potentially have potted plants that you could bring someplace," said Linda Chrisey, bioscience technology program director in the Office of Naval Research.
"You might have the plants on a convoy route," Chrisey said, "or in buildings you were concerned about" — as well as in areas littered with land mines: "If you didn't quite know where things were buried, you could use the plants to help alert you to which areas you need to concentrate on."
The plants also could be deployed to sniff for greenhouse gases and other industrial pollution.
Medford and colleagues at Duke University and the University of Washington began their work using computers to redesign naturally occurring plant proteins called receptors.
Then Medford started dipping plants in a bacteria solution, which allowed them to pick up the custom receptors. Once a plant's genetic structure has been altered, its receptors can detect a pollutant or explosive in air or soil near the plant. When a plant detects the substance, new internal signaling causes the plant to lose its green color and turn white.
Peer-reviewed research results are to be published his week in the science journal PLoS ONE.
While her plants respond to an explosive in hours, researchers said improvements in progress probably will reduce the response time to a few minutes.
"Having cellphones, having social media, having the Internet — this is empowering people," Medford said. "What I see our technology doing is empowering people to know if their air and water is clean."
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
Government grants
Colorado State University has received a number of grants from the Office of Naval Research, U.S. Navy, U.S. Department of Defense and DARPA in the past decade. Here are some highlights:• Examining issues of human cognition in relation to individual decision-making under stress and team pattern-recognition under stress.
• Developing playing cards with messages on how American soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan can help preserve precious antiquities (program has expanded to Egypt and the Middle East region).
• Developing military radar system that will track enemy movement through cities filled with tall buildings, trees and other obstructions.
• Advancing fundamental understanding and development of interference coatings for high-energy lasers.
• Conducting ongoing atmospheric and hydrologic research that supports U.S. military efforts through Center for Geosciences/Atmospheric Research. (Provided cave-detection technology for anti-Taliban operations within a month of 9/11 and helped address how clouds and ice affect certain military airspace zones.)
• Identifying and isolating chemicals that some invasive weeds are known to release to gain footing over native plants and researching the use of those chemicals as natural herbicides, while identifying plants that are resistant to those chemicals.
• Creating a new class of adaptable computer systems capable of processing large files and complex data sets at speeds up to 600 times faster than the quickest Pentium chip.
Read more: Re-engineered plants may root out terrorism threats - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17210850#ixzz1Ck7JcsMm
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