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Reading Room Production, p.7 · reading_room:exh:00004

Page text: p.7 · original PDF

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Gain-of-function researchAwards, honoraria and recognitionWuhan Institute of Virology collaborationFurin cleavage site and molecular features
transmission in people. When evaluating experiments for potential GoF or P3CO we determine the likelihood of altering one of these attributes compared to the wild-type or circulating viral strain. Were they also conducting Seemless Cloining and Assembly? From a review of their experimental details, it looks as if they were generating recombinant DNA of the viruses using WIV1 as the backbone but I could not determine if they were using Seemless Cloning techniques. I'm not aware of them using seamless cloning. Standard techniques for investigators in this field are to create cDNA molecular clones, which are then expressed in cull culture. I could not determine exactly where they were conducting these gain of function experiments. I know UNC-Chapel Hill has done these but within the document, I could not determine where this was occurring. Do you know where this was occurring? GoF experiments were not conducted as part of this award. While chimeric viruses were created via this award, they would not be considered GoF since the results did not confer attributes that were not already exhibited by the wild type versions of the viruses. For example, expressing the spike protein of SARS-CoV in the WIV-1 backbone did not increase the