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Comment by setgree | Hacker News Reader

My dad got Alpha-Gal a few years back and is now severely allergic to beef; recently he ordered the impossible whopper at Burger King and got the same allergic reaction, suggesting either a mix-up or some serious contamination. He was fine but it's no joke, can cause anaphylaxis, etc.

Side note, here's a free idea for a book: ecoterrorists conduct underground gain-of-function research on Alpha-Gal, making it transmit from person to person rather than from tick to person, with the goal of reducing red meat consumption and carbon emissions. Your protagonist could either be a Marion-Cotillard-in-Contagion type scientist trying to figure it out, or a Marion-Cotillard-in-Batman type zealot who truly believes that this syndrome offers mankind's salvation.

This idea was inspired, obviously, by my dad's experiences and recent speculation into Covid's origins: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/the-lab-leak-theory-...

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BK always cooks The impossible whopper patties on the same grill as everything else unless you ask them to microwave it. I think they mention this on their website, but I'm not sure how obvious it is in-store, or if it's even mentioned there at all.

I had a very similar idea, but I was thinking it'd be potentially employed against a geopolitical adversary with a large population and a tight or net import food supply. It could further put strain on the government to cope, thus reducing their threat.

Lack of protein in population diets probably also greatly reduces economic output.

Scary stuff, and anyone could use it against us.

You wouldn't even need gain of function. Just a more efficient vector. It seems almost impossible to get a virus to code for a carbohydrate pathway, and it would quickly be evolved out since it doesn't mediate adhesion or any critical function. Granted, there's a similar problem with supplying the alpha-gal in a parasite pathway.

Low tech air dropping lone star ticks seems like it would still produce the desired effect for the aggressor. And it'd be geographically limited impact unless the species spreads over time.

Biological warfare could be terrifying. We've just seen the first accidental use of it (assuming lab leak is what happened).

Back when I was a biochemistry student I had less scary thoughts, such as tranfecting the THC biochemical pathway into Kudzu to make it impossible to control. (I'm not into drugs but think the drug war is a drag on the US and its neighbors.)

Biology is like the computing field, it's just not as completely developed and fast paced. That could change in the future.

edit: again hit with the HN posting rate limit, and I'm not even downvoted. I think I have interesting insights given my background, but whatever. :(

The novel idea reminds me a bit of the Greg Egan short story The Moral Virologist[0] in his collection Axiomatic.

"John Shawcross is a fundamentalist Christian who is disappointed that safe sex has limited the spread of HIV/AIDS, which he considers to be God's punishment for sexual immorality; consequently, he becomes a virologist, so that he may create a new, more lethal virus."

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moral_Virologist

It's also kind of the plot of Dan Brown's 'Inferno', per wikipedia:

> Brooks explains that Zobrist was a geneticist who advocated the halting of humanity's growth, and that he... had supposedly developed a new biological plague that will cause infertility in a third of the worlds' population, in order to solve the problem of the world's impending overpopulation... ...The plague that Zobrist created is revealed to be a vector virus that randomly activates to employ DNA modification to cause sterility in one third of humans.

Close enough! it's hard to have an original idea

Text of the story is here[0], as linked from Wikipedia.

[0] http://www.gregegan.net/MISC/MORAL/Moral.html

Contamination is a huge problem with this allergy, and most kitchens don't understand or don't care. You pretty much learn that eating out is too dangerous.

Those who end up with this allergy pretty much have to not eat out, as the risk is too high. Imagine not being able to eat out?

Imagine not being able to travel! It's the worst!

> Side note, here's a free idea for a book: ecoterrorists conduct underground gain-of-function research on Alpha-Gal, making it transmit from person to person rather than from tick to person

I would hack into a covid vaccine factory and modify the mRNA code so it produces the spike protein and the alpha-gal protein.

Alpha-gal is a sugar, so this wouldn’t work directly. Also, the syndrome seems to be IgE-mediated, and the mRNA vaccines are intended to induce IgG and perhaps IgA production. So this might not work.

But we could force the cells to produce alpha-gal via mRNA, right? And once the alpha-gal is in the bloodstream, the end result is the same as if it would have been injected by the tick, a immune reaction.

Seems unlikely. Read the review article linked elsewhere:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6554561/

Alpha-Gal syndrome is characterized by IgE (allergic) antibodies, and the mechanism that induces them is complicated. Merely putting an antigen into your body doesn’t do it.

Ah, now I understand. Yes, it's more complex than simply having alpha-gal in your bloodstream.

At least then the paranoia about taking the vaccine would be legitimate.

I immediately had the same spy thriller novel idea!

It is interesting you don't think the zealot could be the protagonist.

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