Transcript segment

Baric Transcribed Interview (Redacted), p.105 · baric_ti:utt:00895

Date: 2026-04-10 09:00 (day precision)
Type: transcript segment · interview
recipient: Christina Salazar, Harry Kazenoff, David T. Lambeth III, William Henderson, Clark Ervin, Jake Greenberg
speaker: Ralph S. Baric
Topics: Furin cleavage site and molecular features

I mean, that's pretty routine. But I don't believe that, at least from the U.S. side, I don't believe there was any grant written, that I'm on, where we proposed to do experiments of furin cleavage sites. Yet, the reason why I became less interested in it was we discovered that if you add trypsin exogenously to the cultures, viruses that you couldn't culture could now be cultured. And that's because cleavage of S1/S2 boundary, cleavage of the spike, is essential for the virus to get into the cell. And if it can't be cleaved, the virus replicates exceptionally poorly, if at all. But if you add trypsin, which is a protease, into the media, you could take viruses that you couldn't culture and now you could culture them. So to some extent I was more interested in being able to have a range of coronaviruses. So, for example, remdisivir was tested in about 12 or 13 coronaviruses, including many different sarbecos, from Clade 1 and Clade 2. So we had a really good idea that it would work against an unknown, and it turned out to be effective against SARS21 coronavirus-2 when used appropriately.

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Statement	Grade	Attribution	Stance
But I don't believe that, at least from the U.S. side, I don't believe there was any grant written, that I'm on, where we proposed to do experiments of furin cleavage sites.	own voice, substantive	speaker_own	asserts

Statement

Grade

Attribution

Stance

But I don't believe that, at least from the U.S. side, I don't believe there was any grant written, that I'm on, where we proposed to do experiments of furin cleavage sites.

own voice, substantive

speaker_own

asserts

In context

A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.

2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open

No. I'm saying in the context of a grant proposal where the agency asks you specifically to learn, down to the nucleotide level, what causes the phenotype, yes, you do all those experiments.
2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open

Okay. So are you saying that all of the other entities that were awarded grants --
2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open

I have no idea what they were awarded. All that I know is that we were not awarded.
2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open

Okay. I mean, you were not awarded, but there was discussion post the denial about doing a smaller proposal, separating it out. DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com
2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric

I mean, that's pretty routine. But I don't believe that, at least from the U.S. side, I don't believe there was any grant written, that I'm on, where we proposed to do experiments of furin cleavage sites. Yet, the reason why I became less interested in it was we discovered that if you add trypsin exogenously to the cultures, viruses that you couldn't culture could now be cultured. And that's because cleavage of S1/S2 boundary, cleavage of the spike, is essential for the virus to get into the cell. And if it can't be cleaved, the virus replicates exceptionally poorly, if at all. But if you add trypsin, which is a protease, into the media, you could take viruses that you couldn't culture and now you could culture them. So to some extent I was more interested in being able to have a range of coronaviruses. So, for example, remdisivir was tested in about 12 or 13 coronaviruses, including many different sarbecos, from Clade 1 and Clade 2. So we had a really good idea that it would work against an unknown, and it turned out to be effective against SARS21 coronavirus-2 when used appropriately.
2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open

So let's go back, though. I mean, you said you don't recall.
2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open

There's a lot of things I didn't recall. What are you talking about? DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com
2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open

The DEFUSE proposal. So in all of these conversations --
2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open

Oh yes, yes.

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