The Unseen Threat: Why a TB Expert is Sounding the Alarm on High-Risk Research

A chilling silence often precedes a storm, and for Dr. Scott G. Franzblau, a venerated expert in tuberculosis research, that silence emanates from the very institutions meant to safeguard public health. For over a year, Franzblau has been sounding a clarion call, a desperate plea for transparency and accountability regarding a perilous frontier of scientific inquiry: "gain-of-function" research on Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), the insidious bacterium responsible for TB.

Franzblau's urgent concerns are not mere academic anxieties.

They stem from a profound understanding of M.tb's already formidable lethality. This pathogen, an airborne assassin, currently claims 1.6 million lives annually and infects countless more, its treatment a grueling, multi-drug regimen spanning months. The thought of deliberately engineering this microscopic menace to be more virulent, more transmissible, or devastatingly, more drug-resistant, sends shivers down the spine of anyone familiar with its existing power.

Gain-of-function (GoF) research involves manipulating pathogens to enhance their properties, often to better understand how they might evolve or to develop countermeasures.

While proponents argue for its scientific necessity, critics, including Franzblau, point to the inherent, catastrophic risks. In the context of M.tb, such modifications could inadvertently create a strain with unprecedented destructive potential, especially if it were to escape the confines of a high-security laboratory.

And history, tragically, is replete with examples of lab accidents.

Dr. Franzblau, a distinguished professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, has spent months attempting to elicit answers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) regarding any GoF research involving M.tb. His attempts have been met with a frustrating wall of non-responses or vague assurances that he finds wholly inadequate.

He believes the NIH's oversight of M.tb GoF research pales in comparison to the intense scrutiny applied to similar work on viruses like SARS-CoV-2, a double standard that he considers alarmingly irresponsible given M.tb's pervasive threat.

Consider the terrifying implications: a new, super-infectious or untreatable strain of M.tb unleashed upon a world already grappling with existing antibiotic resistance crises.

The consequences would be nothing short of a global health catastrophe, eclipsing current epidemics. Unlike many viruses, M.tb requires only a few inhaled particles to establish an infection, making containment in the event of a breach incredibly challenging.

The underlying ethical dilemma is profound: Do the potential benefits of such high-risk research outweigh the potential for an existential threat to humanity? Franzblau firmly believes that for a pathogen as ubiquitous and dangerous as M.tb, the answer is a resounding 'no' unless accompanied by unparalleled transparency, robust public debate, and ironclad safety protocols, none of which he currently sees in place.

His fervent call is for immediate public disclosure from the NIH: What GoF research on M.tb is currently being conducted? What are the specific risks being taken? And how are these risks being stringently mitigated? Without these answers, the global community remains blind to a potential peril being nurtured in the very institutions designed to protect it.

Dr. Franzblau's voice, currently a solitary cry in the wilderness, demands to be heard before the silence gives way to an irreversible roar.