NIAID
Following a year-long, worldwide moratorium on H5N1 research stemming from fears of a global pandemic after researchers showed that the avian flu virus could be spread among ferrets, scientists have released a new “molecular biocontainment” strategy for the safe study of deadly viruses. The protocol, detailed in a paper published Sunday (August 11) in Nature Biotechnology, involves introducing viruses to be studied to human lung cells, which inactivate the viruses.
“The question last year was whether the risk of altered bird flu escaping laboratories justified the science aimed at understanding the transmission of these viruses,” said Benjamin tenOever, a microbiologist at Mount Sinai, in a statement. “With our method, the possibility of human transmission is no longer a concern.”
The biocontainment method involves altering a ...
