Vennis Iris M, Schaap Mirjam M, Hogervorst Petra A M, de Bruin Arnout, Schulpen Sjors, Boot Marijke A, van Passel Mark W J, Rutjes Saskia A, Bleijs Diederik A
Biosecurity Office, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, Netherlands.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2021 Dec 9;9:797076. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.797076. eCollection 2021.
Research on pathogenic organisms is crucial for medical, biological and agricultural developments. However, biological agents as well as associated knowledge and techniques, can also be misused, for example for the development of biological weapons. Potential malicious use of well-intended research, referred to as "dual-use research", poses a threat to public health and the environment. There are various international resources providing frameworks to assess dual-use potential of the research concerned. However, concrete instructions for researchers on how to perform a dual-use risk assessment is largely lacking. The international need for practical dual-use monitoring and risk assessment instructions, in addition to the need to raise awareness among scientists about potential dual-use aspects of their research has been identified over the last years by the Netherlands Biosecurity Office, through consulting national and international biorisk stakeholders. We identified that Biorisk Management Advisors and researchers need a practical tool to facilitate a dual-use assessment on their specific research. Therefore, the Netherlands Biosecurity Office developed a web-based Dual-Use Quickscan (www.dualusequickscan.com), that can be used periodically by researchers working with microorganisms to assess potential dual-use risks of their research by answering a set of fifteen yes/no questions. The questions for the tool were extracted from existing international open resources, and categorized into three themes: characteristics of the biological agent, knowledge and technology about the biological agent, and consequences of misuse. The results of the Quickscan provide the researcher with an indication of the dual-use potential of the research and can be used as a basis for further discussions with a Biorisk Management Advisor. The Dual-Use Quickscan can be embedded in a broader system of biosafety and biosecurity that includes dual-use monitoring and awareness within organizations. Increased international attention to examine pathogens with pandemic potential has been enhanced by the current COVID-19 pandemic, hence monitoring of dual-use potential urgently needs to be encouraged.
对致病生物体的研究对于医学、生物学和农业发展至关重要。然而，生物制剂以及相关知识和技术也可能被滥用，例如用于生物武器的研制。善意研究的潜在恶意用途，即“两用研究”，对公众健康和环境构成威胁。有各种国际资源提供框架来评估相关研究的两用潜力。然而，在很大程度上缺乏针对研究人员如何进行两用风险评估的具体指导。过去几年，荷兰生物安全办公室通过咨询国家和国际生物风险利益相关者，确定了国际上对实用的两用监测和风险评估指导的需求，以及提高科学家对其研究潜在两用方面认识的需求。我们发现生物风险管理顾问和研究人员需要一个实用工具来促进对其特定研究的两用评估。因此，荷兰生物安全办公室开发了一个基于网络的两用快速扫描工具（www.dualusequickscan.com），从事微生物研究的人员可以定期使用该工具，通过回答一组十五个是/否问题来评估其研究的潜在两用风险。该工具的问题取自现有的国际公开资源，并分为三个主题：生物制剂的特征、关于生物制剂的知识和技术以及滥用的后果。快速扫描的结果为研究人员提供了研究两用潜力的指示，并可作为与生物风险管理顾问进一步讨论的基础。两用快速扫描工具可以嵌入到一个更广泛的生物安全和生物安保系统中，该系统包括组织内部的两用监测和意识提升。当前的新冠疫情增强了国际社会对具有大流行潜力病原体的关注，因此迫切需要鼓励对两用潜力进行监测。
