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 CRUZA 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 UCSCs
Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology department. The fourth floor
in particular houses the office of UCSCs 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 Centers work, both had offices on the fourth floor of the Sinsheimer
Labs. Jane
Silverthorne, Program Director of the National
Science Foundations 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 therapiesproblems 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 Scotts Valley, Aptos, and the Central Fire Protection District, all in Santa Cruz County. The California Department of Forestry also responded.
The cause of this mornings 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. UCSCs 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 mornings 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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