Genius idea!

 

Instapundit, under one of its "What could go wrong?" headers, linked to this article in MedicalXpress: 

Researchers discover deep sea microbes invisible to human immune pattern recognition

Okay, that's probably just fine, right? 

In the largest and deepest marine protected area in the world, a team of ocean experts peered over 3,000 meters below the surface to find new types of microbial organisms that people would have never encountered before. These microbes—types of bacteria—could now open up doors to new ways of understanding how the immune system responds to completely foreign invaders.

Well, that sounds great!

A collaborative study among the Rotjan Marine Ecology Lab at Boston University, the Kagan Lab at Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital, the government of Kiribati, and others has found that there are some bacteria so foreign to humans that our immune cells can't register that they exist, overriding the long-held belief of universal immunity, or that our cells can recognize any bacteria they interact with. Rather, the study found, some bacteria are solely defined by their local habitat or surroundings. Their findings were published Friday, March 12, in Science Immunology.

Emphasis added. As if to say "Oh."

"Our team discovered and cultured novel microbes that are completely immunosilent to human immune systems," says Randi Rotjan, meaning that the bacteria triggered no reaction or response from our innate immune system. Rotjan, a BU College of Arts & Sciences research assistant professor of biology and a co-lead author of the paper, says this discovery was completely unexpected.

All right, now I'm getting a little nervous. I mean, if there's no immune response, does it mean that the bacteria would have no effect on us? I don't think so....

More from Rotjan:

All bacteria cells have an outer coating. Lipopolysaccharide, or LPS, is the outermost layer of the bacterial membrane. This outermost layer is what allows other organisms to recognize it. LPS receptors of human cells, mice and horseshoe crab were unable to detect 80% of deep-sea bacteria examined. Now that we know this, there is a pressing need to learn more about host-microbe interactions in every ecosystem, as new discoveries may be made in each habitat. This opens up the potential for new biological tools and therapeutics. For example, using the silent bacteria as a way to deliver medicine or an immune therapy. A mechanistic understanding of our own immune system, coupled with an increased understanding of deep-sea life, opens up new avenues of science to simultaneously help human health while also providing important justification for increasing ocean protection. Interdisciplinary collaboration really opens up new worlds.

 Yes, no doubt in my mind that this bacterial discovery will be used for only therapeutic purposes. 

Rotjan also said:

Kiribati, where our team was based in 2017, is listed by the United Nations as a least developed country, and they have made an incredibly large ocean conservation commitment. One important aspect of this study is that it is a collaborative effort with the government of Kiribati, showcasing the importance and beauty of international partnerships.

Yes, we all love those international partnerships. Like those with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. You know, I heard that last year the National Institutes of Health was going to cut funding off from that institute, because there was some fuss about a coronavirus that got into the populace there. You may have seen something in the papers. 

Then, The Scientist reported, "77 Nobel laureates and 31 scientific societies separately sent letters to NIH Director Francis Collins criticizing the decision to terminate the grant and urging that it be reviewed." Apparently the outbreak in question did not come from the institute, but "most likely jumped from infected animals to humans" -- by enormous coincidence, right there in downtown Wuhan. Amazing! So of course the NIH backed down, because you elected officials can go pound sand; boffins know best.

Anyway, all this has made me wonder what international partnerships have been involved in the study of these non-recognizable bacteria. The "and others" in that top quoted paragraph is a little sly, isn't it? Well, I had a look at the abstract in Science Immunology and it doesn't all that international; all but two of the fifteen study authors listed are affiliated with American universities, the others from Poland and Kiribati. But where is the enormous funding for the project coming from? That we don't know.

However, if you're concerned that we're not getting enough foreign support for this mission, I think you shouldn't worry. The new administration is opening new doors to scientists in China, and various Nobel laureates and the NIH will be right there with them. I expect to find that the Shanghai Institute of Bacteriology is working on this invisible deep-sea bacteria before you know it. Of rather not to find; we won't know about it unless something bad happens.

That won't be the case. We can surely trust everyone involved, right? What could possibly go wrong?