History of Gain-of-Functon Research on SARS viruses

Novel spike protein chimeras: Spike sequences of SARS viruses from wild bats were incorporated into SARS viruses already adapted to mice in the laboratory. (Collaboration of University of North Carolina, USA, Wuhan Institute for Virology, China, and others).

The authors were aware of the dangers of their research and wrote in their article that from now on the risk had to be weighed against the benefit: “On the basis of these findings, scientific review panels may deem similar studies building chimeric viruses based on circulating strains too risky to pursue, as increased pathogenicity in mammalian models cannot be excluded. Together, these data and restrictions represent a crossroads of GOF research concerns; the potential to prepare for and mitigate future outbreaks must be weighed against the risk of creating more dangerous pathogens.”

The experiments in this research are among the most crucial and risky frontier crossings in gain-of-function research. The journal in which the article appeared then felt compelled at the onset of the pandemic, due to increasing criticism of GoF research, to add a commentary claiming that there was no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 originated in the laboratory and that natural emergence of the virus was most likely. However, both statements are no longer tenable today due to many new findings:

30 March 2020 Editors’ note, March 2020: “We are aware that this article is being used as the basis for unverified theories that the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 was engineered. There is no evidence that this is true; scientists believe that an animal is the most likely source of the coronavirus.”