18 month ago , Malcolm Casadaban , a University of Chicago prof of genetics and cell biology , was work on inquiry regarding the Plague . Yeah , that Plague . But the Plague bacterium he was testing was genetically modify , specifically weakened so that it could n’t taint humans . And yet , with sorrow , Casadaban somehow got infected and died just a few hours after being rush to the infirmary .
The question that ’s been boggling scientist thereafter was , well , how in the hell did he die from a moderately much castrate version of the Plague ? Until Casadaban , no one has ever die from that weakened version of the Plague , heck , no one has even gotten tired of from it since 1959 . So what encounter ?
What became Casadaban ’s undoing was that he had his own hereditary modification , hemochromatosis , that left his body more susceptible to the weaken , research lab - testable Plague . Which is unfortunate because that same genetic alteration once helped many subsister fight off the Bubonic Plague . He was inviolable enough for the hard hit version yet exposed enough to give in to a rickety stock .
An autopsy find the research worker had a medical condition called hemochromatosis , which causes an excessive buildup of iron in the consistence , according to the CDC report . The disorder affects about 1 in 400 people and goes unnoticed in about one-half of patient .
Casadaban ’s unwellness is authoritative because of the manner the pestilence bacterium had been weakened . Yersinia pestis needs iron to come through . Normally it gets this iron by stealing it from a host ’s consistence with protein that bind to it and facilitate break it down . To make the bacterium harmless , scientist genetically strip it of the proteins needed to squander iron .
“ It ’s like having a lion , where we take out all its tooth and all its claws , ” Alexander said . “ But in the case of Dr. Casadaban , the lion did n’t even need to have teeth . There was so much atomic number 26 that it was freely available and easy to get . ”
It ’s amazing that something that of course protected you from peril before can put you at risk of exposure in manmade “ safe zone ” now . [ BloombergviaBoingBoing ]
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