Professor shines on ‘NOVA Science Now’

The season premiere of PBS’s Nova Science Now features Regent’s Professor Paul Keim in a story about uncovering the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attacks when anthrax spores were sent through the mail, killing five people and sickening 17.

The results of that massive investigation have led to new methods to protect public health.

The segment, which aired Tuesday night throughout Arizona, illustrates how the FBI and scientists from across the United States, including Keim, used sophisticated scientific techniques to trace anthrax spores to a lab in Maryland.

Keim also is making himself available to PBS viewers who want to send him e-mail questions about how microbial forensics were used in the anthrax case or how these techniques might be applied in other instances. Visit pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0401/02.html to send a question, watch the TV segment or learn facts about the anthrax investigation.

The investigation—the most expensive ever conducted by the FBI costing tens of millions of dollars—has led to breakthroughs in genomic analysis that are helping scientists address public health issues.

“At the time we were on the cutting edge of technology but limited by capacity and cost,” Keim said Wednesday morning. “But as you saw on the report, the cost of sequencing the human genome just a few years ago was $250,000 each. Today it’s less than $100.”

Keim explained that because of the high-profile nature of the case and out of necessity, the government was willing to spend great a deal of funds on what became known as microbial forensics. The results led not only to solving the case of the anthrax letters, but also to enormous public health benefits.

“We can now do the exact same type of investigation on food-borne outbreaks and E. coli,” Keim said. “We can trace back to the source and even determine whether the outbreak was natural or deliberate. Microbial forensics is showing the way.”

In the future, Keim said, scientists will be able to use the same technology to improve public health. “We can sequence, diagnose and track diseases,” he said. “Today DNA sequencers cost about $600,000 each, but there are machines being developed that will cost $150,000, and within five to 10 years, they will be in hospitals and doctor’s offices and on desktops.”