Friday 9 August 2013
SCIENTISTS TO CREATE MUTANT FORM OF NEW BIRD FLU VIRUS TO WORK OUT RISK OF IT CAUSING A DEADLY HUMAN PANDEMIC
Posted on 10:58 by Unknown
‘So the most logical step forward is to put in those (missing) mutations first.’ Writing in the journals Nature and Science on behalf of 22 scientists who will carry out various aspects of the H7N9 work, Fouchier said because the risk of a pandemic caused by a bird flu virus exists in nature, it was critical for risk-mitigation plans to study the likely mutations that could make that happen. This kind of science is known as ‘gain of function’ (GOF) research. It aims to identify combinations of genetic mutations that allow an animal virus to jump to humans and spread easily. By finding the mutations needed, researchers and health authorities can better assess how likely it is that a new virus could become dangerous and if so, how soon they should begin developing drugs, vaccines and other scientific defenses. Yet such work is highly controversial. It has fuelled an international row in the past two years after it was carried out on another threatening bird flu virus called H5N1.
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