INSPIRATION for Ibis Therapeutics's broad-scan biodetector came
when company president David J. Ecker realized that a method
used to screen for potential RNA-binding drugs might provide a
means of looking for pathogens. Image: Courtesy of ISIS
PHARMACEUTICALS Chance is often the best inventor. Isis
Pharmaceuticals never set out to become a maker of sensors for
biological weapons. The company, based in Carlsbad, Calif., is
best known for its work in developing antisense therapies, the
use of small pieces of DNA-like molecules that bind to messenger
RNA (a copy of a gene) to block synthesis of an encoded protein.
Its research led to the formation of a division called Ibis
Therapeutics, which develops chemicals other than DNA that would
interfere with RNA. Along the way, Ibis discovered a method of
screening pathogens that might lead to a universal detector for
biological weapons--even perhaps nefarious, as yet to be
invented bioengineered strains of pathogens. The road to a
universal biosensor began in the mid-