Free the sequences!
If you have never collected scientific data, you might find it hard to appreciate the sense of ownership that grows with such an effort. It often takes years of drudgery to prepare the data for analysis, while the cost of making even minor mistakes can invalidate results or cost a reputation.
All too human
It is no surprise then that researchers want to reap the benefits of their labors -- seeing their results published, with the ensuing recognition, reward, and support for future research. No surprise, either, that researchers jealously guard their data until the information they hold has been published, which may take years.
Not that simple
But what if the data so guarded are of utmost importance for public health decisions? What if the researchers, paid with public monies, are charged with protecting our health? What if the institutions to which we have entrusted stewardship of the health of a country, or even the entire globe, play favorites by sharing data with only some researchers but not others? What if health bureaucracies are hogging data on H5N1 virus structure and behavior that are crucial for vaccine development?
Conflict
An intrepid researcher, Dr. Ilaria Capua of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie in Italy, has made this conflict widely visible by claiming that scientists do not have the right to hog the data when they merely receive specimens with suspected H5N1 for analysis. In her words, "If publishing one more paper becomes more important [than protecting health], we have our priorities messed up." (Enserink 2006)[1]
Call to action
On February 16, this year, Dr.Capua asked more than 50 colleagues around the world to release into the public domain all data on the genetic sequences of the H5N1 virus isolates in their possession. To start off her campaign, Dr. Capua made public H5N1 genetic sequence data from Nigeria and Italy, where H5N1 infections were discovered recently.[2]
Dr. Capua declined the offer to join an in-group of 15 laboratories that have password-protected access to a private database that is controlled by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Counter arguments
As you might expect, some of the researchers with access to this private database argue against making sequence information public. They ask, for example, why they should follow Dr. Capua’s call when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) themselves hog sequence data? Or as another argument goes, if the data are made public, the researchers who have access may risk being scooped by the publications of others. Or some countries may be less willing to share virus samples if the sequences are published.
Some of the arguments may be valid – under normal circumstances. But the threat of an influenza pandemic that might be caused by a highly lethal H5N1 virus hardly qualifies as a normal situation.
What’s at stake?
Since scientists typically post sequence data publicly only after their results are published in a journal, present WHO policies can add many months to the delay with which researchers outside this private circle can contribute to our knowledge. We cannot afford such delays. Neither can we afford stifling a global cooperative effort of the best minds to understand how the H5N1 virus evolves and spreads, what new capabilities it acquires, where its weak spots may be, where it may go, and what it may do next.
First signs of success
Dr. Capua has also received considerable support from fellow scientists.[3] Since her call to action, and perhaps because of it, Drs. Yi Guan and Malik Peiris[4] of Hong Kong University have released 2006 H5N1 sequences from Laos and Malaysia[5] -- prior to publishing papers. Also, Chinese researchers have released three human H5N1 bird flu sequences to GenBank and, for the first time, they are sending H5N1 samples to WHO.[6]
We will keep watching for the actions of the CDC, WHO, and the in-group of 15 laboratories. What they will do, or not do, just might end up being of vital importance for all of us -- quite literally.
[1] Enserink M.
As H5N1 Keeps Spreading, a Call to Release More Data.
Science 3 Mar 2006;311(5765):1224
DOI: 10.1126/science.311.5765.1224
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/311/5765/1224
[2] Dr. Capua did so by sending the genetic sequence data to GenBank, a public database maintained by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, accessible through: http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/Genbank/index.html
If you like, you can read a large portion of the genetic code for the Nigerian Hemagglutinin gene (HA) in RNA language and in protein language at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nucleotide&val=88604738
[3]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060312.wcdc0312/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home, for example.
[4] The world owes Drs. Guan and Peiris a huge debt of gratitude. They were members of a team whose courageous and skillful actions stopped the first H5N1 outbreak in 1997 and the later SARS outbreak in Hong Kong.
[6] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-04/04/content_4384528.htm
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