Greater Than 50% Probability that Dallas Ebola Victim Acquired Disease On Flight

Odds are greater than 50%--68%-- that Thomas Duncan acquired Ebola from someone who had the virus during his airplane trip on on Sept 18th--flight # SN1247

From Gotnews:

“Thomas Duncan flew from Monrovia (ROB) to Brussels (BRU) on Brussels Airlines flight 1247 (SN1247) which departed ROB on Thurs. Sept. 18 and arrived in BRU early moring Fri. Sept. 19. He did not depart BRU until the next day aboard United Airlines flight (UA951) which arrived at Dulles (IAD) the same day. He had a round-trip ticket, which was purchased on Sept. 2 from an IATA accredited travel agency in Lagos, Nigeria. It appears his ticket was purchased by a company named “Silson Global Business Liberia Ltd.”. His return flight was scheduled to depart Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) on Oct. 19. The return flight was scheduled for DFW-IAD-BRU-FNA (FNA is Lungi Intl Airport in Freetown, Sierra Leone).

From NBC news:

“Ten experts from the Centers for Disease Control are tracking down those who made contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the man diagnosed with the Ebola virus, in the days he was sick before being checked in to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

links:

Experts: Ebola Could be Transmitted “At a Distance” From Infected Victims

“In a piece published by CIDRAP, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, authors Dr Lisa Brosseau and Dr Rachael Jones highlight how Ebola currently has “unclear modes of transmission.”

“We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks,” states the article.

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AIDS: Biological Ethnic Genocide?

Dr. Boyd Ed Graves, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and Ohio Northern University School of Law where he earned his Juris Doctorate, and former Medical Research Director for the International Medical Research Foundation, discovered The United States Special Virus Program (1962-1978), a formerly secret federal virus development initiative to develop a contagious "cancer" that selectively kills based on genetic ethnic markers of the host.

The U.S. Special Virus Program published 15 annual progress reports detailing the progression of manipulating animal viruses to infect human hosts. Each 400-page progress report details the progress of 'special virus' scientists including Dr. Robert Gallo and Dr. Duesberg as they work towards their contracted goal to create the 'special virus'.

According to Dr. Graves, the US government spent $550 million to create the HIV enzyme, in order to  spread it to primarily Africans, but "undesirables" such as African Americans and homosexuals were also targeted . 

Chapter Excerpt from “State Origin: The Evidence of the Laboratory Birth of AIDS” by Boyd E. Graves, J.D.:

"The true history of the origin of AIDS can be traced throughout the 20th Century and back to 1878. On April 29 of that year the United States passed a “FEDERAL QUARANTINE ACT”.

The United States began a significant effort to investigate “causes” of epidemic diseases. In 1887, the effort was enhanced with the mandate of the U.S. “LABORATORY OF HYGIENE”. This lab was run by Dr. Joseph J. Kinyoun, a deep rooted-racist, who served the eugenics movement with dedication.

Two years later, 1889, we were able to identify “mycoplasmas”, a transmissible agent, that is now found at the heart of human diseases, including (AIDS) HIV.

In 1893, we strengthened the Federal Quarantine Act and suddenly there was an explosion of polio.

In 1898, we knew we could use mycoplasma to cause epidemics, because we were able to do so in cattle, and we saw it in tobacco plants.

In 1899, the U.S. Congress began investigating “leprosy in the United States”.

In 1902, We organized a “Station for Experimental Evolution” and we were able to identify diseases of an ethnic nature.

In 1904, we used mycoplasma to cause an epidemic in horses.

In 1910, we used mycoplasma to cause an epidemic in fowl/birds.

In 1917, we formed the “Federation of the American Society for Experimental Biology” (FASEB).

In 1918, the influenza virus killed millions of unsuspecting. It was a flu virus modified with a bird mycoplasma for which human primates had no “acquired immunity”.

In 1921, lead eugenics philosopher, Betrand Russell, publicly supported the “necessity for “organized” plagues” against the Black population.

In 1931, we secretly tested African Americans and we tested AIDS in sheep.

In 1935, we learned we could crystallize the tobacco mycoplasma, and it would remain infectious.

In 1943, we officially began our bio-warfare program. Shortly thereafter, we were finding our way to New Guinea to study mycoplasma in humans.

In 1945, we witnessed the greatest influx of foreign scientists in history into the U.S. biological program. Operation Paperclip will live in infamy as one of the darkest programs of a twisted parallel government fixated on genocide.

In 1946, the United States Navy hired Dr. Earl Traub, a notorious racist biologist.
A May appropriations hearing confirms the existence of a “secret” biological weapon.

In 1948, we know that the United States confirmed the endorsement of “devising a scheme” in which to address the issue of overpopulation in certain racial groups. State Department’s George McKennan’s memo will forever illuminate the eugenics mendacity necessary for genocide of millions of innocent people.

In 1949, Dr. Bjorn Sigurdsson isolates the VISNA virus. Visna is man made and shares some “unique DNA” with HIV. See, Proceedings of the United States, NAS, Vol. 92, pp. 3283 - 7, (April 11, 1995).

In 1951, we now know our government conducted its first virus attack on African Americans. Crates in Pennsylvania were tainted to see how many Negro crate handlers in Virginia would acquire the placebo virus.. They were also experimentally infecting sheep and goats. According to author Eva Snead, they also held their first world conference on an AIDS-like virus.

In 1954, Dr. Bjorn Sigurdsson publishes his first paper on Visna virus and establishes himself as the “Grandfather of the AIDS virus.” He will encounter competition from Dr. Carlton Gajdusek.

In 1955, they were able to artificially assemble the tobacco mosaic virus. Mycoplasmas will forever be at the heart of the U.S. biological warfare program

In 1957, future U.S. president, Rep Gerald Ford and others gave the U.S. Pentagon permission to aggressively deploy offensive biological agents. There are no recorded cases of AIDS prior to the 1957 creation of “Special Operation-X.” (The SOX) program served as the immediate prototype program for the Special Virus program to begin in 1962.

By 1960, Nikita Kruschev had been let in on the biological weapon. His 1960 statement will long reflect the arrogance of the secret blend of communism and democracy. The two countries would go to a November 1972 agreement to cull the Black Population.

In 1961, scientist Haldor Thomar publishes that viruses cause cancer. In 1995, he and Carlton Gajdusek informed the National Academy of Sciences that “the study of visna in sheep would be the best test for candidate anti-HIV drugs.”

In 1962, under the cover of cancer research, the United States charts a path to commit premeditated murder, the “Special Virus” program begins on February 12th. Dr. Len Hayflick sets up a U.S. mycoplasma laboratory at Stanford University. Many believe the “Special Virus” program began in November 1961 with a Phizer contract.

Beginning in 1963 and for every year thereafter, the “Special Virus” program conducted annual progress reviews at Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA. The annual meetings are representative of the aggressive nature in which the United States pursued the development of AIDS.

In 1964, the United States Congress gave full support for the leukemia/lymphoma (AIDS) virus research.

In 1967, the National Academy of Sciences launched a full scale assault on Africa. The CIA (Technical Services Division) acknowledged its secret inoculator program.

In 1969, Fort Detrick told world scientists and the Pentagon asked for more money, they knew they could make AIDS. Nixon’s July 18 secret memo to Congress on “Overpopulation” serves as the start of the paper trail of the AIDS Holocaust.

In 1970, President Nixon signed PL91-213 and John D. Rockefeller, III became the “Population Czar.” Nixon’s August 10 National Security Memo leaves no doubt as to the genocidal nature of depopulation.

In 1971, Progress Report #8 is issued. The flowchart (pg. 61) will forever resolve the true laboratory birth origin of AIDS. Eventually the Special Virus program will issue 15 reports and over 20,000 scientific papers. The flowchart links every scientific paper, medical experiment and U.S. contract. The flowchart would remain “missing” until 1999. World scientists were stunned. The flowchart will gain in significance throughout the 21st Century. It is also clear the experiments conducted under Phase IV-A of the flowchart are our best route to better therapy and treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. The first sixty pages of progress report #8 of the Special Virus program prove conclusively the specific goal of the program. By June 1977, the Special Virus program had produced 15, 000 gallons of AIDS. The AIDS virus was attached as complement to vaccines sent to Africa and Manhattan. However, because of the thoroughness of authors, like Dr. Robert E. Lee, we also learn the Stanford Mycoplasma Laboratory issues one of the first papers with AIDS in the title. “Viral Infections in Man Associated with Acquired Immunological Deficiency States.” The primary scientist, Dr. Thomas Merigan, was a “consultant” to the Special Virus program.

Progress Report # 8 at 104 - 106 proves Dr. Robert Gallo was secretly working on the development of AIDS with full support of the sector of the U.S. government that seeks to kill its citizens. Dr. Gallo can not explain why he excluded his role as a “project officer” for the Special Virus program from his biographical book. Dr. Gallo’s early work and discoveries will finally be viewed in relation to the flowchart. We now know where every experiment fits into the flowchart. The “research logic” is irrefutable evidence of a federal “Manhattan-style project” to develop a “contagious” cancer that “selectively” kills. Dr. Gallo’s 1971 paper is identical to his 1984 AIDS announcement.

Progress Report #8 at 273 - 286 proves we gave AIDS to monkeys. Since 1962, the United States and Dr. Robert Gallo have been inoculating monkeys and re-releasing them back into the wild. Thus, even government scientists are baffled that both HIV-1 and HIV-II would “suddenly emerge” from two distinct monkey ancestral relatives during the last 100 years. A 1999 Japanese study will ultimately prove the Man to Monkey origin of Monkey AIDS. The monkey experiments summary definitively proves Monkey AIDS is also man-made.

In 1972, the United States and the Soviet Union entered into a biological agreement that would signal the death knell for the Black Population. The 1972 agreement for collaboration and cooperation in the development of offensive biological agents is still U. S. policy.

In 1973, we find that world scientist, Garth Nicolson reports on his project, “Role of the Cell Surface in Escape From Immunological Surveillance.” His report is accompanied by seven published papers. Dr. Nicolson worked in conjunction with the Special Virus program from 1972 until 1978. Dr. Nicolson is considered by some to be Dr. Gallo’s “West Coast” counterpart. It is strongly held that because of Dr. Nicolson, Dr. Robert Gallo and Dr. Luc Montagnier would secretly meet in Southern California to coordinate what they would and would not say about the special virus development program.

In 1974, Furher Henry Kissinger releases his NSSM-200 (U.S. Plan to Address Overpopulation). It is the only issue of discussion at the World Population Conference in Bucharest, Romania. The men in the shadows had won, the whole world agrees to secretly cull Africa’s population. Today it is Africa and other undesirables. Tomorrow it may be you.

In 1975, President Gerald Ford signs National Security Defense Memorandum #314. The United States implements the Kissinger NSSM-200.

In 1976, the United States issues Progress Report #13 of the Special Virus program. The report proves the United States had various international agreements with the Russians, Germans, British, French, Canadians and Japanese. The plot to kill Black people has wide international support. In March, the Special Virus began production of the AIDS virus, by June 1977, the program will have produced 15,000 gallons of AIDS. President Jimmy Carter allows for the continuation of the secret plan to cull the Black Population.

In 1977, Dr. Robert Gallo and the top Soviet Scientists meet to discuss the proliferation of the 15,000 gallons of AIDS. They attach AIDS as complement to the Small pox vaccine for Africa, and the “experimental” hepatitis B vaccine for Manhattan. According to authors June Goodfield and Alan Cantwell, it is Batch #751 that was administered in New York to thousands of innocent people. This government will never be able to repay the people for the social rape, humiliation and out right prejudice people with HIV/AIDS face on a daily basis. The men in the shadows of the AIDS curtain accurately calculated that you would not care if only Blacks and gays are dying. In fact you don’t care that nearly a half million Gulf War veterans are encumbered with something contagious. Soon there will be no more Black people and a confused military, older White people will start suddenly dying and you still won’t get it. Be here now for us, give us a chance to be there for you.

Suddenly, just as President Nixon had predicted, there was explosive death. On November 4, 1999, the U.S. White House announced,.... “Within a period as short as five years, all new infections of HIV in the United States will be African American....” At some point our experts must be allowed to begin the interface process of allowing the history of this virus program to count. It is ludicrous and preposterous to fail to review the U.S. virus program in which to elucidate the etiology of AIDS.

More of the history of the secret virus program can be found in the archives of Dr. John B. Moloney. A review of the files under Dr. Moloney’s name would further pinpoint additional dates and records consistent with one of the greatest hunts, capture and proliferation of disease in the history of the human race. We have found the missing link. It is the guts of the research logic of a federal program that seeks to kill. We have found a curtain of AIDS. We can identify some of the people who work in the shadows of the curtain. Dr. Robert Gallo and Dr. Garth Nicolson must lead us in review. In light of the attack mechanisms available in which to inhibit AIDS, it is time that not another person be stricken with this relic, synthetic mycoplasma chimera.

Help those of us who are still here to realize full and contributory lives. We are all one people.

On September 28, 1998 I filed suit against the United States for the “creation”, “production” and “proliferation” of AIDS. On November 7, 2000, the appeals court agreed with the lower court and held AIDS bioengineering as “frivolous.” The world continues to wait for the court to rule on the resubmitted issues. The court can not continue to simply brush aside our experts and the government’s flowchart.

I have been asked to give my perspective with regard to the federal program MK-NAOMI . MK-NAOMI is the code for the development of AIDS. The “MK” portion stands for the two co-authors of the AIDS virus, Robert Manaker and Paul Kotin. The “NAOMI” portion stands for “Negroes are Only Momentary Individuals.” The U.S. government continues to orchestrate silence from the very top echelons of the Congress and military. At present there is no accountability. The good people will ultimately create a tsunami of public outrage. We can not allow the state an autocratic right to govern outside of the Constitution. Our society is structured to hide crimes committed by the state, while punishing citizens for minor indiscretions. Their strategy focuses on the general confusion they can create via manipulation of the media. They are very good at what they do. We must become more focused in our continued presentation of the flowchart. The flowchart is the absolute missing link in proving the existence of a coordinated research program to develop a cancer virus that depletes the immune system. New diseases do not create old illnesses.

This compilation of court documents and correspondence is the true effort of one man’s achievement in solving the mystery of the origin of AIDS. We have found the origin of AIDS, it is us."

AIDS cure: Patent #5676977

"The 1971 flowchart makes it perfectly clear, the design, intent and purpose of the U.S. Special Virus program. As Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS says, 'The HIV/AIDS virus is the result of many steps in the laboratory, it was no accident.' The 1971 flowchart provides absolute evidence of the United States' intent to kill its own citizens and others... We are greater than any federal virus program. We are the human race!"--Dr. Boyd E. Graves Sept. 28, 2002

"The depopulation programs of the United States are hideous. Indeed, if we are overpopulated in any parts of the world, how dare our governments secretly make something [AIDS], that smile in your face, while they watch you die."—Dr. Boyd Ed Graves

The 1971 AIDS flowchart (below) coordinates over 20,000 scientific papers and fifteen years of progress reports of a secret federal virus development program.

Click here to enlarge

Links:

Mycoplasma, AIDS, Degererative Diseases: What you don't know can kill you.

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Defeat the Conficker Worm Before it's Too Late.

Sunday night, Sixty Minutes warned us about the insidious worm, Conflicker, which will begin trying to connect to 50,000 web domains to receive further instructions tomorrow, April 1. It's anyone's guess as to what those instructions will be.

A complete analysis of Conflicker worm including a list of all the sites you will not be able to access if infected by Conflicker can be found here.

How to diagnose and defeat the dangerous Conficker worm from USA Today's blog provides more links and information regarding the Conflicker worm.

If you can't get through because the web address or URL contains one of the hundreds of names Conflicker blocks you can click on this Microsoft malicious software removal site, which doesn't contain "Microsoft" in the URL. Here, you'll find a free all-purpose malicious software scanner.

Additional tools:

F-Secure Easy Clean

Enigma Software Free Conflicker Removal Tool

Norton Conflicker Removal Tool

Microsoft says they are checking into this and suggested this last-ditch option: contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support at no charge, using the PC Safety hotline at 1-866-PCSAFETY.

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Scariest Ideas In Science

Bringing back the 1918 Spanish Flu Virus:

Up to 50 million people worldwide perished in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Within a year, the virus mutated, immunity spread, and the flu vanished. In October 2005, a team led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pieced together the virus’s genome from lung tissue of a 1918 flu victim buried in Alaskan permafrost and brought her killer back from the dead. It’s out there, in a lab fridge, deadly as ever, right now.

WHY, GOD? WHY? The scientists say that the virus can help reveal the mechanisms of a pandemic and that it offers timely insight into how the emerging H5N1 avian flu might have leapt from birds to humans. Reanimating the monster is a “practical curiosity,” says Erling Myhre, an infectious-disease physician at Lund University in Sweden and a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. “It gives a better understanding of how genetic information in [influenza] can change over time.” The work goes on. Last October, members of the group debuted a vaccine to protect against the reanimated virus.

FEAR FACTOR The project is what experts call “dual-use research”: It has beneficial uses but potentially nefarious ones too. Risk, researchers believe, is inherent to research on human threats. “The public has to understand that in order to be prepared for pandemics and bioterrorism, dangerous work has to happen,” says Michael Stebbins, director of biology policy at the Federation of American Scientists.

The work also freaks out scientists, however. “The 1918 flu reconstruction is a bad example to other countries,” argues Harvard University virologist Jens Kuhn, a member of the science working group for the nonprofit Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. With proper resources, ”anyone can now also reproduce this virus [from the published genome].” A team in Canada is already studying its own version. And escape from the kind of high-level containment labs that store the virus isn’t unheard of—SARS samples inadvertently saw daylight several times during that epidemic several years ago.

Although current antiviral drugs— and the new vaccine—thwart the reconstructed flu in mice, there’s no guarantee that they work as well on humans (a problem because nobody born after 1930 is immune to the 1918 strain). “To proceed with the construction of this virus under those circumstances is irresponsible,” says Rutgers University microbiologist Richard Ebright, a prominent critic of the research. “If it had to be done,” Kuhn agrees, “it should have been done in a different way.”

The 22-Hour Workday

According to the National Sleep Foundation, 71 percent of Americans get eight hours of sleep or fewer on weeknights, and the percentage is rising. “We’re an increasingly sleep-deprived society,” says circadian-rhythm scientist Russell Foster of the University of Oxford. But a new crop of “wakefulness- promoting” drugs can improve alertness—with no real side effects. Last summer Darpa, the U.S. Department of Defense’s advanced-research arm, tested the drug CX717 by exposing subjects to battle conditions for four consecutive 20-hour days. Sleeping only four daylight hours, they remained amped and alert. Meanwhile, prescription modafinil can keep civilians fresh for 48 hours. Its successor, armodafinil, poised for FDA approval, lasts even longer.

WHY, GOD? WHY? Pennsylvania-based drugmaker Cephalon developed modafinil and armodafinil to treat narcolepsy, sleep apnea and shift-work sleep disorder. But fighting drowsiness has world-changing potential. The electric lightbulb allowed workers to remain productive after dark. Drugs that allow us to toil into even wee-er hours is the next leap forward.

FEAR FACTOR The pills make us more productive. But is that a good thing? Will they cast us into true work-all-day/party-all-night zombiehood? “Modafinil is just the beginning,” says Pennsylvania State University sleep researcher David Dinges, who has tested it extensively. Foster agrees. “We may be the first species that will genuinely occupy the 24-hour day,” he says. “But we know very little about the consequences of subduing sleep.” (Rats, it should be mentioned, die after 17 days without shut-eye.)

The drugs appear to act on one or two neurotransmitters. They’re not replicating real rest, though. It takes the combined efforts of four or five neurotransmitters to keep humans awake naturally. “The drugs can be effective for quite a while,” Dinges says, “but a chemical substitute for sleep they’re not.”

You can't reason with them. You can't kill them. They're...
Merciless Robot Soldiers

The South Korean government and Samsung Techwin recently debuted SGR-A1, a weaponized robot that autonomously tracks intruders up to about two and a half miles away with high-resolution and infrared cameras. Anyone who doesn’t give the robot’s voice-recognition system the correct secret code is identified as an enemy to a remote human operator, who directs the ’droid to unleash a warning, rubber bullets, tear gas or live rounds.

WHY, GOD? WHY? South Korea has one of the world’s lowest birth rates and shares a border with one of the most feared military dictatorships. The government is pouring millions of dollars into the development of guard robots to ease manpower shortages along borders, coasts and terrorism targets, and expects the robot to enter service after 2008.

FEAR FACTOR Foster-Miller, the company that created the first weaponized robots—the Iraq-bound Swords—has heard all the safety concerns. “The U.S. was adamant that we absolutely prove beyond any doubt that [Swords] cannot fire on its own,” says vice president Robert Quinn. Samsung insists that it’s taken equal precautions: A person must engage a key before hitting SGR-A1’s “fire” button, and the operator can designate no-fire zones. (“The exact nature of the safety system is classified,” says collaborator Hanseok Ko of Korea University, “but its goal is to prevent accidents.”) Still, soldiers making life-or-death judgments through a robotic proxy is undeniably disturbing.

Planetary Solar Shield

The latest plan for fighting global warming sounds more like intergalactic warfare: Launch clouds of miniature spacecraft that bend 1.8 percent of the sun’s light away from Earth. Roger Angel of Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory in Arizona has worked out the math. Now, with financial backing from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, he’s making a prototype of a light-diverting material. The gram-weight flyers he has in mind would be shot into L1 orbit, a sweet spot that follows the same yearly path as the Earth. From that vantage, the crafts’ collective shadow would help cool the entire planet.

WHY, GOD? WHY? Increasing carbon dioxide levels mean that global temperatures could rise by 10°F by century’s end. Deflecting some of the sun’s heat might mitigate doomsday effects­ like drought, flood, pestilence and extinction.

FEAR FACTOR Isn’t global warming about CO2 levels, not sunlight itself? Don’t we need that light for something . . . crucial? “There would be some small effects on Earth,” Angel admits. Plants might grow a tad slower, and solar energy wouldn’t be at top efficiency. “If you both turn up CO2 and block the sun,” says climate-change expert Richard Alley of the University of Pennsylvania, “you will not have exactly the same climate you had before.”

More chilling to Alley is the idea that the spacecraft might suddenly fail. “Suppose we’ve doubled, tripled, quadrupled CO2, the temperature is up by 10°F, and we’re holding it down,” he muses. “Then something breaks, and the spacecraft disappear. You want to see an abrupt climate change? It would be a shock to the system.”

Angel imagines that his method would be used in concert with other ways to turn down the heat. “This in no way removes the need to wean ourselves off carbon,” he says. “It’s a kind of insurance on the chance that our worst predictions actually play out.”

In The wilds of Siberia, they’re breeding...
The Ultimate Vicious Carnivore

Scientists at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk, Russia, have been selectively breeding silver foxes for hostility. After 36 generations, the 200-some foxes scream, snap, and lunge when humans approach their cages.

WHY, GOD? WHY? The late geneticist Dmitry Belyaev began the experiment with a more benign goal: ultimate tameness. Beginning in 1959, Belyaev bred successive generations of friendly foxes, essentially replicating the 12,000-year-old process of domestication in a fraction of the time. The project continues to reveal how wolves may have evolved into docile dogs at the hands of humans.

But in 1970, to explore the spectrum of behavior, the program began to breed vicious specimens. “It was a crackpot scheme,” says Caroline Blanchard, a University of Hawaii aggression researcher who visited the farm. But it made waves. A 1999 American Scientist article by Belyaev’s successor, Lyudmila Trut, “had a huge impact,” says Sergio Pellis of Canada’s University of Lethbridge, who studies aggressive play. “Having animals [at extremes], you can identify processes for each trait.”

FEAR FACTOR The foxes aren’t going anywhere. They live in metal cages outside one of the world’s remotest cities. And even if they managed to escape somehow, they wouldn’t survive for long. “The term ‘aggressive’ is misapplied. These animals are hyper-defensive,” Pellis says. The risk-averse foxes wouldn’t attack—they’d probably hide until they starved.

Grow New Appendages

Amphibians can regenerate limbs. Mammals can’t. “This is a significant problem,” says Tulane University cell biologist Ken Muneoka. Now two teams of bioscientists are out to correct our evolutionary shortcoming under a recent $7.6-million Darpa grant. The current goal is to produce a mammalian blastema—the cell bud that forms a new amphibian limb. In four years, Darpa wants a regrown mouse finger. Human research is the logical next step.

WHY, GOD? WHY? The percentage of American combat amputees has doubled since the Korean War—a side effect of advancements in body armor and field medicine. Darpa funds will help scientists bolster preexisting research on the genetic and cellular processes of tissue regeneration. “Even if we fail,” says Muneoka, a team leader, “we’ll get better wound-healing.”

FEAR FACTOR As unnatural as the project sounds (“No, really, I have two left feet”), it doesn’t require genetic meddling, says the other team leader, Stephen Badylak of the University of Pittsburgh’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. “The genes we need are there.” Mammals can already regrow limbs—to a point. Young children who lose fingertips can remake bone and tissue perfectly.

The teams are following even more curious leads. The regenerative abilities of the “MRL” breed of lab mouse, discovered by immunologist Ellen Heber-Katz of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, fall between those of amphibians and normal mammals. Holes punched in ears, cut tail tips, even injured heart tissue—all grow back (although when an MRL’s finger is cut lower than the tip, Heber-Katz says, “it’s able to form a structure but not the full digit”).

The research could be life-changing for amputees. The scientists believe that a mixture of cellular and extracellular components —maybe hormones, vita- min A, fibroblasts—could be applied to fresh amputations to steer them toward regeneration. “We grow a whole human in nine months,” Badylak says. “A limb should be nothing!”

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Virus Cures Deadly Human Brain Cancer in Mice

A cancer-fighting virus has eliminated malignant brain tumors and prolonged survival in mice with a single injection.

Reporting in the journal Cancer Research, Canadian scientists from Calgary and London, Ontario have shown for the first time that myxoma virus, a poxvirus, kills human brain tumors in mice.

“We’re extremely encouraged by these results and the apparent cure seen in the mice treated with the active virus compared to untreated mice or those injected with inactivated virus,” says researcher Grant McFadden of Robarts Research Institute in London.

For the brain tumor experiments, McFadden teamed up with Dr. Peter Forsyth of the University of Calgary, a professor in the departments of oncology, and biochemistry & molecular biology, who has developed a mouse model with human gliomas, a malignant form of brain tumor. Over the past two years, their laboratories have tested the virus against experimental models of human malignant tumors, both in cell culture and in living animals. Injecting the tumor with the virus was not only well-tolerated – with only minimal inflammation at the site of the inoculation—but 92 per cent of the 13 mice treated were alive and apparently “cured” when the experiment was finished (after more than 130 days).

“Those animals continued to show a selective and long-lived myxoma virus infection in the tumors themselves but that infection did not spread and harm the animal,” says Dr. Forsyth, director, Clark H. Smith Integrative Brain Tumour Research Centre. “This and other factors suggest that myxoma virus warrants further investigation as a potential treatment for malignant brain tumors in people.”

The University of Ottawa also played a major role: Dr. John Bell initiated the Canadian Oncolytic Virus Consortium, a program funded by The Terry Fox Foundation, to study various viruses with the potential to treat cancer. In 2004, Dr. Bell brought together the teams from London and Calgary to initiate the study reported in Cancer Research.

McFadden and Forsyth are now planning to test the virus as a treatment for a deadly melanoma that is known to spread to the lung. They will be able to tag the virus with a fluorescent protein and track its progress in mice as it attacks the metastasized tumor cells.

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