Gain-of-Function Research: All in the Eye of the Beholder

Image: Electron microscope image of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus particles (orange) found near an infected cell (green). Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Image credit: NIAID / Flickr. Article by Charles Schmidt. Undark – September 27, 2021.

Should work done on coronaviruses in Wuhan, China, be considered “gain-of-function” research? Opinions differ.

In 2012, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) organized a meeting after two laboratories independently reported eye-opening results. In both labs, researchers had managed to alter the avian H5N1 flu virus so it could spread through the air among ferrets, an animal often used in virology to model the […]

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