3 ms·
Getting everyone to agree what "gain of function" means is a lost cause. "The term GOF didn’t have much to do with virology until the past decade. Then, the fe
by jpeloquin 4y ago
Getting everyone to agree what "gain of function" means is a lost cause.
"The term GOF didn’t have much to do with virology until the past decade. Then, the ferret influenza studies came along. In trying to advise the federal government on the nature of such research, the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) borrowed the term … From that usage, it came to mean any research that improves a pathogen’s abilities to cause disease or spread from host to host."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02903-x https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02903-x
The actual regulations sensibly avoid the term, targeting "enhanced potentially pandemic pathogens".
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/research-involving-potential-pandemic-pathogens https://www.nih.gov/news-events/research-involving-potential...
- peteradio 4y agoFollowing your link Sars-cov-2 falls under that categorization. > Examples of pathogens that have the potential to cause human pandemics, or have caused a human pandemic, include the H5N1 or H7N9 influenza viruses(link is external), also referred to as bird or avian influenzas, SARS-CoV(link is external), which caused an epidemic in several countries in 2003, and SARS-CoV-2(link is external), also known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, which causes COVID-19 disease.