Thanks for sharing, Satori! I hadn't heard about this....this is one of the reasons why I enjoy AFT so much (smart folks constantly mining the web for pertinent news tidbits).
Here's the backstory....after the events of 9/11, it became a status symbol for universities to obtain funding for setting up high level biosafety labs and conduct this type of research. Many of us are familiar with Dr. Kawaoki at Univ of WI in Madison, Wisconsin, and his ongoing (crazed) pursuit to create ever more infectious viruses via gain of function (GOF) experiments. Talk about playing with fire....
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/12/nih-lifts-3-year-ban-funding-risky-virus-studies" rel="nofollow - http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/12/nih-lifts-3-year-ban-funding-risky-virus-studies
Concerns over so-called “gain-of-function” (GOF) studies that make pathogens more potent or likely to spread in people erupted in 2011, when Kawaoka’s team and Ron Fouchier’s lab at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, announced that they http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/11/scientists-brace-media-storm-around-controversial-flu-studies" rel="nofollow - had modified the H5N1 bird flu virus to enable it to spread between ferrets . Such studies could help experts prepare for pandemics, but pose risks if the souped-up pathogen escapes the lab. After a long discussion, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) decided the two studies should be published and federal officials issued new oversight rules for certain H5N1 studies.
------------- CRS, DrPH
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