Dna Sleuthing Cracks The Anthrax Case

摘要

After a seven-year investigation of the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, the FBI was preparing in July to charge a single scientist, Bruce Ivins of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, with the crimes. To trace the source of the anthrax, the FBI used "microbial forensics," a new approach that combines established microbiology techniques with DNA sequencing. By 2002, sequencing had narrowed possible sources to about 20 laboratories worldwide. Ivins's strange protocols allowed inspectors to narrow the search further.