The Gene-Splicers Return

Three years ago, when Cambridge passed the country's strictest local guidelines for DNA research, many feared the city government had scared away the booming science's new practitioners.

But last week, when word leaked out that Biogen Inc. plans to build a major recombinant DNA facility in the middle of East Cambridge, it appeared the city's historic debate over DNA had had just the opposite effect.

"That Cambridge had dealt with this issue was a plus in our minds; the citizenry should be better educated and informed," Andre Muller, an executive of the Swiss-based firm, said.

And Biogen lawyer Kenneth Novack added that "the city has already made a decision: it could have banned DNA work outright, or left it completely laissez-faire. Instead, it chose to allow DNA research within certain regulations, regulations that we already follow."

"There is a degree of predictability in dealing with Cambridge," Novack added.

The Biogen development will differ from research conducted at Harvard and MIT in one main way--products of the research will be manufactured, at least in limited quantities, requiring what Muller termed an "upscaling" of the whole process.

Under current city law, Cambridge officials can do little to block Biogen's plans; the city's DNA ordinance mandates compliance with National Institute of Health Guidelines, and creates a local monitoring board to insure the guidelines are followed.

But DNA became a hot political issue four years ago--"we had John Chancellor, we had the foreign press, we had every reporter you could think of in our chambers," council aide Richard McKinnon recalls--and it could become one again.

City councilor Alfred A. Vellucci--who led the fight fours years ago against DNA research in the city--has already promised to ask for a city wide ban on P-3 level research (the second highest level of security) by private concerns within the city, a rule that might interfere with Biogen's operations.

The first clue as to how heated the debate will be should come Tuesday night, when the council holds public hearings on the question, and individual councilors, including many participants in the last debate, will have an opportunity to air their views.

Unlike Harvard and MIT, though, Biogen has some leverage in the debate. Should the city council start to raise a stink, company officials hint they will leave.

"We have several viable options," Muller said, and his threat may carry some weight--should Biogen pull out, it would take with it about 100 potential jobs, including 50 blue collar positions.