AP Wire Service

The anthrax research that Nicholas Duesbery does at the Van Andel Institute has taken on new interest since the deaths of postal workers and a Florida tabloid worker in disease attacks.

The 36-year-old Canadian native and an international team of scientists are studying a nonvirulent anthrax strain to see if one of its proteins will inhibit tumor growth.

This anthrax strain was developed by the National Institutes of Health for research purposes and has had its spore-making ability removed.

``What we have can't be weaponized,'' Duesbery told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Sunday. ``It's nontoxic; it can't kill anybody. It will kill a tumor, but it won't kill anything else.''

Duesbery has discussed his research before, but it is attracting new interest in the wake of anthrax attacks that have killed three and seriously sickened several others.

``Normally, no one wants to talk with me,'' Duesbery said with a grin.

As an expert in how the potentially lethal bacteria behave, Duesbery is getting calls from reporters all over the country. His name has cropped up in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and even the BBC wants an interview.

America has become ``a crime scene, and anthrax is the murder weapon,'' Duesbery said.

About 250 laboratories in the United States and as many as 1,000 sites abroad maintain cultures of some form of anthrax, according to the American Society of Microbiology. These centers include germ banks, universities, veterinary research centers, medical businesses and government laboratories.

Besides the private nonprofit Van Andel Institute, laboratories in Lansing and Ann Arbor use anthrax bacteria for research.

Duesbery said obtaining one small vial of nonvirulent anthrax was not easy, even back in 1999.

Researchers in the United States seeking to use the bacteria must pass a stringent registration process with the Centers for Disease Control. Applicants must outline their plans for the anthrax, who will have access to it and what safety precautions are in place.

``It took eight months to get it,'' Duesbery said.

Van Andel researchers now produce their own bacteria, which are kept in a locked freezer.

``Only a select group of people will ever have access to that particular material,'' said Liam Sullivan, the onsite safety officer at the Institute.

Sullivan and a team of four others from Michigan State University's Office of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Safety make sure strict safety regulations are followed.

``We definitely are very careful,'' Sullivan said. ``We don't want to expose our workers or people outside the building to hazardous materials.''

Duesbery and his colleagues--Jean-Francois Bodart from France, Arun P. Chopra from India and Xudong Liang from China--say the anthrax toxin shows promise as a weapon against cancer. If all goes well, clinical trials on humans could begin in two to three years.

Exotic frogs are part of the research team at Van Andel. The scientists have studied their eggs--what makes them divide and what makes them stop dividing--to find out what might make normal cell division run amok, causing a tumor.

The frogs themselves, the tiny West African clawed frog and the saucer-sized South African clawed frog, are not part of the research. Duesbery is interested only in their eggs, which they produce year-round.