Fears of a terrorist attack using dangerous bacteria or viruses have spurred research into ways to detect the organisms rapidly. Now an Irish researcher is preparing to travel to a leading disease research centre to assess whether the new tests might have a part to play in a more peaceful but equally important role.
Dr Colm Lowery of the University of Ulster at Coleraine, who has extensively researched test systems for bacteria in food and water, is going to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta in September to study the research organisation's latest test systems.
Most of his research focuses on dangerous food- and water-borne organisms such as salmonella, E coli 0157, Clostridium botulinum and the protozoan Cryptosporidium parvum, a single-celled organism found in water supplies. All cause serious illness and sometimes death: a rogue's gallery of agents that could be used as biological weapons.
"Since 1996, I have been developing DNA detection systems for water-borne organisms such as cryptosporidium," says Lowery. "After I finished my PhD on that, we were approached by the National Food Centre in Dublin to join a consortium of EU scientists." This group, which had links with the CDC, enabled him to learn more about research there. "The CDC has a world health remit, linking up with centres around the world to develop routine medical diagnostics."
He will combine his expertise with the rapid diagnostic systems being developed at the CDC. Its focus is on bioterrorism agents, such as the smallpox virus or anthrax bacterium, and on creating tests that can tell in minutes if the agents are present. These are usually based on genetic technologies that check for DNA matches to confirm organisms' presence.
Dr Lowery wants to make the test systems available for less exotic organisms. "We would like to establish this technique for routine medical diagnostics," he says, referring to simple tests that could provide "end-of-bed" diagnostics services for doctors.
A GP visiting a patient with unusual symptoms would take a sample and send it to a specialist lab to determine what organism may be causing the illness. The most commonly used DNA techniques require up to eight hours. It can take days to culture most organisms and up to 12 weeks to get confirmation for some, such as tuberculosis, he says. "You are talking about a detection system that can reduce that to 10 or 15 minutes."
Dr Lowery's own tests are based on a quick sampling method that detects DNA sequences that prove the presence of an organism. DNA strands that match those from an organism lock on to a target. When exposed to light, a phosphorescent material attached to the test DNA triggers a detector.
He will compare pathogens in the CDC's extensive library with samples taken from disease outbreaks in Northern Ireland and the Republic. These studies are valuable to the CDC, he says, as it is easier to follow the pathways of disease transmission here than it is in continental Europe or the US, as the pathways are simpler.
Dr Lowery, a research officer in the University of Ulster at Coleraine's school of biological and environmental sciences, was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to fund his research activities at the CDC."The idea is you bring something back to your own community."
After three months at the CDC he will continue his fellowship at Tokyo University of Fisheries, a leading centre for researching food-borne organisms, particularly C botulinum. Dr Lowery hopes to form links between Tokyo, Atlanta and Coleraine. "What I am intending to do is develop a collaboration between the two centres and home."