The study, under review at the journal mBio and released today on the preprint server bioRxiv, answers one of the many remaining questions about the Soviet Union's clandestine biowarfare program by showing that scientists hadn't tinkered with the anthrax strain to make it more resistant to antibiotics or vaccines. (sciencemag.org)
It was intended to house biowarfare research by the Army, but the project was canceled in 1952. (discovermagazine.com)
There are already some companies dedicated to bringing ribozymes from the laboratory to the commercial world, with potential applications as sensitive sensors of biowarfare germs or as medical diagnostic tests. (discovermagazine.com)