Questioning the decision to resurrect smallpox relative in the lab

smallpox

In an effort to develop a safer vaccine substitute, Canadian researchers have resurrected a close relative—the extinct horsepox virus—from scratch. Critics say the exercise was pointless, and because the results were published in an open access journal, they fear the smallpox virus can now be manufactured by virtually anybody—terrorists included.

Researchers from the University of Alberta revived the horsepox virus by referencing a publically available genome sequence and by chemically manufacturing DNA fragments from scratch…

News of this work first emerged in July 2017, but the publication of the results in the open access journal PLoS One on January 19, 2018 has sparked fresh waves of concern

[T]he general public hasn’t been inoculated against smallpox for decades. There’s a chance that smallpox could re-emerge naturally, or be manufactured as a bioweapon. [Pharmaceutical company] Tonix is working on a synthetic version of horsepox to create a potentially safer vaccine substitute. In tests, the resurrected lab-grown virus was shown to protect mice from lethal doses of vaccinia. Looking ahead, Tonix would like to test the synthetic stuff on humans in carefully controlled trials.

Regardless of whether this work is safe or necessary, this should have been part of a larger conversation, given the seriousness of smallpox’s threat to humans.

Read full, original post: Scientists Slammed for Synthesizing a Smallpox-Like Virus in the Lab

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