She noted that there is no market incentive for companies to develop treatments for many of the diseases that may be used in bioterrorism.

Smallpox, for example. was declared eradicated in 1977. However, stores of the virus are said to exist in both Russia and the U.S., and many people born since the disease was eradicated have not been vaccinated.

One biotechnology company, Cambridge-based Acambis, is under contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to produce smallpox vaccine. The government has ordered a 40 million dose stockpile. But without the government contract, there would be no reason for a company to produce the vaccine.

In contrast to Collier’s work, which may have applications for vaccines, Dietrich’s work on anthrax focused on genes that cause cells to resist the toxin. In a paper published in this week’s Current Biology, Dietrich describes two alleles, or versions of a gene, that help mice fight off anthrax infections.

If humans have similar genes, they could be used to gauge a person’s risk of death after exposure to the anthrax toxin. But the basic research Dietrich is doing is still far from finding ways to treat the disease.

“In terms of therapy, this has to do with understanding more about the process,”he said.

Dietrich, too, says he is not used to the attention he has been getting.

“It’s surprising to me. Four weeks ago people would not have noticed this paper,” he said.

He said he hopes all the talk about anthrax does not alarm people.

“I don’t want people to be more panicky than they already are,” he said.

—Staff writer Jonathan H. Esensten can be reached at esensten@fas.harvard.edu.