Washington Editor

ARLINGTON, Va. The biotechnology industry surpasses the aerospace industry in market capitalization and research expenditures, and it’s high time the Army figures that out, Douglas Bauer, director, counterterrorism coordination for the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, said.

Bauer was among a number of science professionals and military personnel who addressed the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s one-day bio-defense and homeland security conference held here Tuesday, near the Pentagon.

Washington-based BIO, in conjunction with the Department of Defense, pulled the conference together after learning about a number of biotechnology companies that were unsure after Sept. 11 which department within the military to contact in order to share technology.

Consequently, BIO invited representatives from its member companies to present their relevant technology to military and health and human services personnel. In exchange, employees of the DOD and other areas of the government explained future anticipated needs related to combating bioterrorism from both military and civilian perspectives.

While the military looks to private industry for innovative ideas, Col. Steve Reeves, of the DOD’s biological chemical command, told the crowd that the DOD needs “mature technology for rapid transition to our war-fighters.”

“We know there have been a number of vaccines out there for a while, and we know there are better treatments, which is why we are looking to the biotech industry,” Reeves said. “Our job is to sort out what is real, from the anti-gravity boots, and get it to the war-fighter.”

Even though there may be a few vaccines available for some biological-agent illnesses, Ken Alibek, president of Advanced Biosystems Inc. in Manassas, Va., and author of the book, “BioHazard,” warned attendees that it doesn’t take a lot of knowledge to develop biological weapons for the likes of anthrax, the plague, smallpox or a host of other nasty illnesses.

“Depending on the type of weapon, it takes only two to five years to develop a biological weapon on a large scale, and it takes 10 to 15 years to develop a vaccine,” he said. “We talk about a vaccine for smallpox smallpox was developed by the Soviets in the 1960s and anthrax was developed in the 1950s.”

From the military standpoint, Anna Johnson-Winegar, deputy assistant to the secretary of defense, said in the past the vision and mission of the chemical and biological defense program had focused on the military personnel. “This now may require changes; we now may have to consider the civilian population,” she said. “The military response generally has been that there’s not a single technology or set of procedures to counter the threat of biological weapons.”

Johnson-Winegar said she’s always been a proponent of vaccines because they provide the lowest risk and most effective protection for the military population, but not necessarily for the civilian population. “Now we will have to look at, How do we develop a vaccine that can be used in a healthy military population as well as a pediatric and geriatric population.’”

Other than medicines and vaccines, the DOD is poised to look toward the biotechnology industry for support in other areas.

Col. Jerry Warner, of the DOD’s Office of Net Assessment and an author of a two-year study resulting in the report, “Exploring Biotechnology’s Opportunities for the Department of Defense,” told conference attendees that the DOD has concluded that it needs an “open dialogue with the biotechnology industry.”

In the study, Warner said, the military reviewed the types of products that can be developed through advancing science to better protect military personnel in the field.

For example, advances in science have created bulletproof vests made of spider silk that provide the flexibility of regular linen but also have the ability to disseminate energy and hold up against small-arms fire. Also, Warner described sleeping bags composed of a combination of nanotechnology and biology that can serve as a shelter against biological attacks because they engage detectors and filtering mechanisms.

Other areas would involve research into human performance such as sleep deprivation or high-altitude exposure.

For more information on future Army needs, visit the National Academy of Sciences website at www.nationalacademies.org.