Suspicious fire engulfs biotech research labs at UCSC

Early morning fire destroys research lab on UC Santa Cruz campus
by Fhar Miess

January 11, 2002

SANTA CRUZ—A fire broke out around 5:30 this morning on the fourth floor of Sinsheimer Labs on the University of California, Santa Cruz campus. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. At the scene this morning, some speculated that this may have been an act of sabotage, citing the controversial nature of much of the research performed there. Others were of the opinion that it was simply an accident. On the one hand, we might note that the fire occurred in a portion of the building housing the most controversial experiments and at a time of day when saboteurs are most likely to strike. On the other hand, we could point to the high security of the building, the history of fires in such labs, and recent complaints from the UCSC Fire Department of inadequate resources. Hard evidence is too scarce at this point to make a determination one way or the other.

The Sinsheimer building houses UCSC’s Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology department. The fourth floor in particular houses the office of UCSC’s Center for Molecular Biology of RNA.

Researchers engage in two controversial areas of study on the fourth floor: Human Genome Project research and plant genomics. The UCSC Center for Genomic Science was recently awarded a $5.7 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute. Manuel Ares and Alan Zahler, two of the four scientists listed as Principal Investigators in the Center’s work, both had offices on the fourth floor of the Sinsheimer Labs. Jane Silverthorne, Program Director of the National Science Foundation’s Plant Genome Research Program, also had an office on the fourth floor. The fire started in laboratories supervised by Manuel Ares and spread to the adjacent lab of Jane Silverthorne before being contained. The university reports smoke and water damage throughout the four-story building. No injuries were reported.

Despite ballooning numbers of “bio-ethics” boards and the flourishing of academic disciplines charged with analyzing the possible social repercussions of human genetic research, people continue to resist the inertia of “scientific progress”. Some find the notion of scientists “playing God” by manipulating human genetic lines to be abhorrent. Others point out the likely risks of engaging in genetic manipulation without a solid foundation of knowledge upon which to base it. They note that any immediate benefits of genetic therapies may be offset by unforeseen problems generated by those therapies—problems which are generally irreversible and readily compounded. Still others are sceptical that any new technology can live up to its purported social benefits in the context of a biomedical establishment driven more by pecuniary profit than by compassion. They worry that what legitimate treatments and therapies do actually come out of human genetic research will be applied most often to those with the most money and social privilege. While some welcome the preponderance of bio-ethics boards and committees as a necessary foil to unrestricted scientific progress, others view them primarily as a ruse to legitimate genetic research and development which has no legitimate basis.

This summer, UCSC hosted a Human Genome Symposium touting the achievements of bioinformaticists (scientists studying ways to use computer technology to map and analyze genetic material). A protest against the Human Genome Project took place outside of that event. Present as a panelist at the symposium was Robert Sinsheimer, after whom the Sinsheimer labs were named. In 1985, while Chancellor at UCSC, Sinsheimer convened a workshop on the mapping of the human genome which served as the origin of the proposal which eventually formed the Human Genome Project. Sinsheimer convened this workshop with the help of molecular biologists Robert Ludwig and Harry Noller, both of whom have offices on the fourth floor of the Sinsheimer building.

Plant genomics (genomics is the study of genetic traits and their expression) has also proved to be a controversial field of study. Opponents to the genetic engineering of agricultural crops are sceptical of scientists’ abilities to anticipate and avoid environmental catastrophes arising from the “leaking” of engineered genetic information into the gene pool on a scale that would be otherwise impossible. While not engaged directly in production-level genetic manipulation, the Jane Silverthorne lab does conduct research which is vital to the work of scientists who are more closely tied to the biotech industry. Again, anti-genetic engineering activists note that the benefits of agricultural biotechnology go mainly to large ag-biotech firms such as Novartis, Monsanto, and Seminis Vegetable Seeds while farmers are trapped in restrictive contracts which oblige them to pay premium prices to poison their land with chemical herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers and consumers are saddled with unsafe food. Agricultural biotechnology has done little to increase food supply while exacerbating already skewed distribution patterns, leaving millions of people hungry, they claim.

A press release issued by the university states that a total of 60 firefighters and environmental health and safety personnel responded to the fire. The UC Santa Cruz Fire Department received aid from fire departments from the City of Santa Cruz, the City of Scott’s Valley, Aptos, and the Central Fire Protection District, all in Santa Cruz County. The California Department of Forestry also responded.

The cause of this morning’s fire is still being investigated and the economic impact of the fire is being assessed. After the fire had been contained, hazardous materials teams inspected the interior of the building. UCSC’s press release indicates that “as of early afternoon, [the] focus is on protecting and preserving research materials throughout the building, with professors providing staff with information to prioritize the removal and/or securing of equipment and experimental data and materials.” Other news sources have quoted preliminary damage estimates of at least $1,000,000, with Manuel Ares claiming a loss of 14 years of work. Jane Silverthorne is on leave until January 22nd and was unavailable for comment.

UCSC Fire Chief Charles Hernandez was quoted as saying that the buidling had no sprinkler system because it was built before fire codes mandated them.

There have been other fires at Sinsheimer which were the result of accidents. On October 20th, 1999, an accidental fire broke out on the first floor of Sinsheimer during the afternoon, accompanied by a small explosion which sent one researcher to the hospital.

However, if this morning’s fire was indeed an act of sabotage, it would not have been the first time. On December 31st, 1999, a fire was set at the offices of Catherine Ives at Michigan State University. On January 20th, 2000, the Environmental Liberation Front took credit for that action, charging the researcher with doing work which “force[s] developing nations in Asia, Latin America and Africa to switch from natural crop plants to genetically engineered sweet potatoes, corn, bananas and pineapples”. That same day, a group calling itself the “Fragaria Freedom Farmers” took credit for an action the previous night at Plant Sciences in Watsonville (some 20 miles from UCSC) which resulted in the destruction of a research plot of genetically engineered strawberries.

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