Custom DNA Makers May Be Required to Screen Customers, Hoping to Thwart Crafty Bioterrorists
DNA Profile A U.S. Customs and Border Protection chemist reads a DNA profile to determine the origin of a commodity. The federal government recently issued new guidelines for manufacturers of custom DNA sequences, hoping to thwart would-be bioterrorists. via Wikimedia Commons Four ounces of shampoo is enough to send the Transportation Security Administration into a tizzy, but the U.S. government does not have any rules governing the making of custom sequences of DNA to order, for sale to any interested would-be bioterrorists. Until now, anyway. Earlier this month, the federal government announced guidelines for companies that sell "custom DNA," which could conceivably be used to build deadly viruses from scratch, reports New Scientist. The rules would apply to any companies that sell DNA sequences made to order; apparently, there are at least a dozen. The government wants these companies to go all TSA and verify customers' identities, checking them against...