Harnessing DNA Synthesis to Develop Rapid Responses to Emerging and Pandemic Pathogens

Given the interconnected nature of our world today, emerging pathogens and pandemic outbreaks are an ever-growing threat to the health and economic stability of the global community. This is evident by the recent 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, the SARS outbreak, as well as the ever-present threat of global bioterrorism. Fortunately, the biomedical community has been able to rapidly generate sequence data so these pathogens can be readily identified. To date, however, the utilization of this sequence data to rapidly produce relevant experimental results or actionable treatments is lagging in spite of obtained sequence data. Thus, a pathogenic threat that has emerged and/or developed into a pandemic can be rapidly identified; however, translating this identification into a targeted therapeutic or treatment that is rapidly available has not yet materialized. This commentary suggests that the growing technology of DNA synthesis should be fully implemented as a means to rapidly generate in vivo data and possibly actionable therapeutics soon after sequence data becomes available.