November 20, 2014

Openness in science is key to keeping public trust

Silence stifles progress. The scientific enterprise needs a transparent culture that actively finds and fixes problems.

Yarborough M.

Nature. 2014 Nov 20;515(7527):313. doi: 10.1038/515313a.

A must. Nothing else to be said. 

November 17, 2014

Moratorium on risky virology studies leaves work at 14 institutions in limbo
Jocelyn Kaiser
ScienceInsider

Under the Freedom of Information Act Jocelyn Kaiser obtained so-called stop orders issued by the NIAID. Dated October 21, 18 such orders affecting 14 institutions were issued covering influenza, MERS and SARS viruses. Somewhat surprisingly, a MERS coronavirus project with the aim to adapt it to mice was put on hold. The details of the project are unknown. Nonetheless it is plausible that this would involve physical inoculation of mice.

Personal opinion
This MERS virus experiment is not the GOF research most people have in mind. A small animal model of the MERS virus would be useful for testing of small molecule inhibitors and learning something of the physiopathology of the infection. Put it another way, we don’t have too many reagents for camels, which are rather large. The benefits are fairly easy to articulate.

Adapting a virus to the mouse is a goal for many researchers because there are huge numbers of markers, reagents and knock out mice that unquestionably help the scientist. Of course human and mouse genomes and physiology are different and so the mouse is “only” a model. But mouse model work invariably advances the field.

An experiment of concern is one that adapts a virus to humans and agriculturally important animals and crops. Equally increasing the virulence of an extant virus that infects humans, agriculturally important animals and crops would be of concern. Experiments of concern were first listed in the so called Fink report 2003.

November 6, 2014

Stockholm ESCAIDE 2014

Plenary session D:
Primum non nocere – Why engineer microbes to be more dangerous to humankind?

Audience survey - electronic voting via smart phones after the session

Q1: Should ‘Gain of Function’ (GOF) research be paused in the EU until clearer policies are in place for researchers?
101 yes - 43 no (70% yes)

Q2: should the public health sector be more involved in the risk-benefit analysis of GOF research?
139 yes - 7 no (95% yes)

Q3: Should the EU have a “dedicated body” to manage biosafety and biosecurity issues around dual-use ‘research of concern”?
114 yes - 29 no (80% yes)

November 5, 2014

Guest post from Prof. Mike Imperiale of the University of Michigan.

The post is on the UK Society of Biology blog ahead of their “Policy Lates” session at the Charles Darwin House, November 20, 2014.

Prof. Imperiale comments on the recent US pause in GOF virus research. He is worried by it being open ended and is concerned about collateral damage in virology.

October 23, 2014

Nature editorial – A ripe time for gaining ground

After three years of heated debate, the advocates and critics of gain-of-function research must work to agree on how best to regulate work.

Nature. 2014 Oct 23;514(7523):403. doi: 10.1038/514403a.

“And the revelations over the past few months of serious violations and accidents at some of the leading biosafety containment labs in the United States has burst the hubris that some scientists, and their institutions, have in their perceived ability to work safely with dangerous pathogens.”

October 22, 2014

Meeting of new NSABB. For agenda see here.

Two news reports in Science and Nature written within hours of the meeting.

We learn that “Such GOF studies are "crucial" for the selection of each year's candidate vaccine strain because they help WHO identify the riskiest strains in the wild, Schultz-Cherry said.”

Consultation with two senior flu researchers familiar with the selection process of strains for the annual flu vaccine revealed that they disagree with this statement.

October 17, 2014

The US National Academies announced that they would be holding a workshop on GOF research. 
It will take place at the National Academies of Science building in Washington DC on December 15-16.