A trial gets under way today involving a former Pfizer biologist who claims she was illegally fired for claiming she was intermittently paralyzed by a genetically engineered virus to which she was exposed, and the proceedings are being closely watched because the alleged incident raises questions about safety practices in genetic engineering, The Hartford Courant writes.

Organizations involved in workplace safety and responsible genetic research say the lawsuit filed by Becky McClain is an example of what they claim is evidence that risks caused by genetic manipulation have outstripped more slowly evolving government regulation of laboratories, the paper continues. McClain suspects she was inadvertently exposed, through work by a former Pfizer colleague, to an engineered form of the lentivirus, a virus similar to the one that can lead to AIDS. Medical experts working for McClain believe the virus affected the way her body channels potassium, leading to a condition that causes complete paralysis as many as 12 times a month.

McClain alleges she should have been protected under whistle-blower laws. Pfizer denies her allegations, saying she raised them only after she was fired in 2005 for refusing to come to work and the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration dismissed McClain’s complaint (here is her lawsuit).

“If a worker in a plant as sophisticated as Pfizer is becoming infected with a genetically engineered virus, then I think the potential is everywhere,” Jeremy Gruber, president of the Council for Responsible Genetics, a public interest group created to explore the implications of genetic technologies, tells the paper. “Genetically engineered viruses are commonly worked on at your average university,” Gruber said. “The public has a right to know what regulations are in place and what regulations are required to fix an industrywide issue. We need to have a conversation about this. Ms. McClain’s attempt to do that has been hampered at every turn, by the courts and by regulators.”