
November 2015 | A SARS-like coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence - firaskafri
http://gcrinstitute.org/gcr-news-summary-november-2015/
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firaskafri
Researchers created a hybrid version of a bat coronavirus related to the virus
that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that is capable of
infecting human airway cells. The virus is not the first bat coronavirus known
to be capable of binding to key receptors on human airway cells, but the
results suggest that bat coronaviruses may be more of a danger to humans than
previously believed. In 2014, the US asked researchers to suspend “gain-of-
function” research making certain viruses more deadly or transmissible while
the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity and the National Research
Council assess the risks. The bat coronavirus research had already started and
was allowed to continue when the moratorium was called. Critics of gain-of-
function research worry that what we learn from it does not justify the risk
of creating dangerous new viruses. Rutgers molecular biologist Richard Ebright
told Nature that in his opinion “the only impact of this work is the creation,
in a lab, of a new, non-natural risk”.

