The smallpox virus (re) created in the laboratory.

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The smallpox virus (re) created in the laboratory.




by sen-no-sen » 17/10/17, 23:41

A worrying information, but after all perfectly logical in the context of biotechnological "democratization":

For 100.000 dollars and with limited technical means, researchers have managed to synthesize in the laboratory a strain of the terrible smallpox virus. Eradicated in the late 1970s, this deadly disease could become the next bioterrorist weapon.


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VIROLOGY. Reproducing a deadly pathogen in the laboratory is no longer science fiction. Canadian researchers have indeed succeeded in synthesizing an active strain of the smallpox virus, according to the American magazine Science. A manipulation capable of relaunching fears of a bioterrorist threat. In this case, it is an equine strain that they have reproduced, harmless to humans therefore. But their approach shows that it is now possible to create pathogens for humans with relatively few means. 100 dollars, a laboratory, six months of work and ... an Internet connection were enough for Drs David Evans and Ryan Noyce, virologists at the University of Alberta (Canada), to create this complex viral strain. It is indeed on the Web that the two researchers obtained the necessary DNA fragments. The results of this work were presented in 000 to the World Health Organization, which judged, after an international meeting on smallpox in Geneva, that the experience had “not required knowledge or 'exceptional biochemical expertise, no investment or particularly significant time'. However, it would be possible to create a human strain of the virus with the same means. "If it is possible with the equine strain, it is also possible for a human strain", explains to Science Gerd Sutter of the Ludwig Maximilians-University in Munich (Germany).


The bioterrorist risk in question

Eradicated in 1979, smallpox was a formidable disease, fatal in a third of cases of infection. Only a few samples still exist on the planet, kept in high security laboratories. Strains that have been at the center of controversy for years: should they be destroyed to eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or that they one day fall into the wrong hands? Or should they be kept in order to facilitate research in the event of a re-emergence of the disease? This dilemma was to be posed again at the WHO World Assembly in 2019. But the experience of Canadian researchers is a game-changer: if it is relatively simple to produce this virus in the laboratory, is it not preferable to keep these samples for research purposes?

The Canadian researchers' achievement - which is yet to be published - comes as no real surprise. In 2002, a strain of poliomyelitis had already been synthesized in the laboratory. And the progress of synthetic biology left little doubt about the imminent ability to be able to create much more complex viruses, such as smallpox. "This is an important step, a proof of concept of what can be done with the synthesis of viral genomes", explains David Evans. If the experience revives fears related to bioterrorism, the researcher prefers to see it as an opportunity to develop new vaccines, or even to study the virus as a vector for cancer treatments. Still, the bioterrorist risk linked to smallpox is taken very seriously. Very contagious, the virus is transmitted only between humans by direct contact or by simple postilions. And the viral dose is suspected to be very low: a few particles are enough to infect an individual. In other words, you don't have to produce a lot of the virus to start an outbreak.


https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/sante/menace-bioterroriste-un-virus-de-la-variole-cree-en-laboratoire_114638
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Re: The smallpox virus (re) created in the laboratory.




by izentrop » 18/10/17, 00:50

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Re: The smallpox virus (re) created in the laboratory.




by Remundo » 18/10/17, 10:24

we thank in advance these idle biologists for giving good ideas to the dingoes of the moment.

Lack more than they offer their (r) vices now ... : Twisted:
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Re: The smallpox virus (re) created in the laboratory.




by sen-no-sen » 18/10/17, 10:40

The use of biological weapons dates back to antiquity, but advances in biotechnology are bringing us day by day closer to the possibility for a terrorist group to not only use a virus, but to genetically modify it to harden it.
During the Cold War, Russian scientists had been able to develop variola strains with higher levels of mortality than with a natural strain ... for a long time this threat was to remain in the closet because of the skill levels necessary for their executions.
Nowadays, especially since the advent of synthetic biology, this threat has become the most important for mankind.
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Re: The smallpox virus (re) created in the laboratory.




by izentrop » 18/10/17, 11:43

I know there are irresponsible, but using a weapon that will turn on you is dissuasive, like nuclear weapons.

Otherwise, maybe no need to recreate it, it recreates itself well on its own by mutation and with the melting of permafrost, there are sleeping people who wake up.

at least 1500 reindeer have been killed in the Yamal Peninsula, poisoned by anthrax, reports the Washington Post.
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Re: The smallpox virus (re) created in the laboratory.




by sen-no-sen » 18/10/17, 12:08

izentrop wrote:I know there are irresponsible, but using a weapon that will turn on you is dissuasive, like nuclear weapons.


When we do the census of terrorist groups and other sects of millennial types there is something to worry about ...

Otherwise, maybe no need to recreate it, it recreates itself well on its own by mutation and with the melting of permafrost, there are sleeping people who wake up.

at least 1500 reindeer have been killed in the Yamal Peninsula, poisoned by anthrax, reports the Washington Post.


The melting of permafrost as the destruction of tropical forest would effectively release one of its evil geniuses from the bottle ...
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Re: The smallpox virus (re) created in the laboratory.




by phil12 » 18/10/17, 12:23

As a weapon of mass destruction you have the cheapest OTC Roundup!
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Re: The smallpox virus (re) created in the laboratory.




by izentrop » 18/10/17, 12:37

phil12 wrote:As a weapon of mass destruction you have the cheapest OTC Roundup!
I take it for humor, but it is the message that conspiracy activists manage to get across the minds of the public who do not seek to know the scientific truth, of a product very useful in conservation agriculture, but who perhaps indeed has nothing to do in garden centers.
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Re: The smallpox virus (re) created in the laboratory.




by sen-no-sen » 18/10/17, 13:32

phil12 wrote:As a weapon of mass destruction you have the cheapest OTC Roundup!


The Spanish flu (1918) is even close to 50 million deaths ... a genetically modified virus could certainly make many more victims, especially in the flight area low cost.
As a reminder: the speed of collapse of a system is proportional to its degree of connectivity (see the work of R. Ulanowics) ... a more connected world doesn't that remind you of anything?
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Re: The smallpox virus (re) created in the laboratory.




by Christophe » 19/05/22, 01:10

Mouhahahaha hello who is it?

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