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Published online 30 April 2008 | 453, 15 (2008) | doi:10.1038/453015f
News in Brief
Artist cleared over possession of bacteria
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Lest it remain unclear whether or not this constituted a bioharzardous situation, Ferrell mailed Kurtz properly contained samples of Serratia marcescens and Bacillus subtilis var. niger purchased from ATCC. These are demonstration bacteria commonly used in high school and college microbiology courses. The government's case--initially triggered by fear about possible bioterrorism--ultimately devolved into whether or not Ferrell violated a material transfer agreement signed with ATCC in sending the bacteria to Kurtz. Under any other circumstances, this would be settled in a civil, not criminal, court in the United States (evidence supplied from ATCC is ambiguous and suggests that it was not a violation). But given the current political climate, Federal prosecutors chose to disregard written guidelines in the US Attorney's manual and prosecute this as a criminal case of wire and mail fraud since Kurtz and Ferrell used email to discuss sending the bacteria through the US mail. This prosecution was eerily reminiscent to that of Dr. Thomas Butler at Texas Tech University, who was successfully prosecuted and sent to prison in order to "send a message to scientists" (<http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/bio/factsheets/thomasbutler.html> and "Destroying the Life and Career of a Valued Physician-Scientist Who Tried to Protect Us from Plague: Was It Really Necessary?, Clinical Infectious Diseases, June 1, 2005"). Ferrell, a noted geneticist and former chairman of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh who is suffering from chronic lymphoma and other medical ailments, pleaded guilty to lesser charges so that the ordeal of further prosecution would be avoided.