Gene From 1918 Virus Proves Key to Virulent Influenza

Gene From 1918 Virus Proves Key to Virulent Influenza (University of Wisconsin News Release) 10/6/2004 Contact: Yoshihiro Kawaoka "Using a gene resurrected from the virus that caused the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, recorded history's most lethal outbreak of infectious disease, scientists have found that a single gene may have been responsible for the devastating virulence of the virus. Writing Oct. 7 in the journal Nature, virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo, describes experiments in which engineered viruses were made more potent by the addition of a single gene. The work is evidence that a slight genetic tweak is all that is required to transform mild strains of the flu virus into forms far more pathogenic and, possibly, more transmissible... Using a comparatively mild form of influenza A virus as a template, Kawaoka's team added the two 1918 genes that code for hemagglutinin and neuraminidase and infected mice with the engineered viruses."

Lori Price
http://www.legitgov.org/flu_oddities.html

that what they did was cut and paste from one virus to another. They didn't create a virus, nor did they create the gene sequence within it. They just aren't capable of that as yet.

However poorly this serves the CIA/virus creation paranoia crowd, this is important work that could unlock the how and why of extreme virulence and could have an effect in virology across the board.

that what they did was cut and paste from one virus to another. They didn't create a virus, nor did they create the gene sequence within it. They just aren't capable of that as yet.

Polio virus synthesis Virologists are developing these types of systems for (at least) a few viruses. Ironically, de novo assembly probably makes it safer to study nasty viruses in the lab because you can induce their assembly under tightly controlled conditions and don't have to passage active viruses over and over.

However poorly this serves the CIA/virus creation paranoia crowd, this is important work that could unlock the how and why of extreme virulence and could have an effect in virology across the board. Agreed.

-SM

The more knowledge we can gain about these viruses, the better our chances against them!

more power to them.