Title:
Scientists Are Cloning the Coronavirus Like Crazy. Here’s Why - and the Risks
Author:
Shelly Fan
Publised:
SingularityHub, 19 May 2020
https://singularityhub.com/2020/05/19/cloning-the-coronavirus-could-mean-a-faster-cure-lets-talk-about-the-risks/
From the article:
"Most biomedical researchers are busy finding ways to squash the new coronavirus. Meanwhile, synthetic biologists are busy cloning it in droves.
In late February a team from the University of Bern, led by Dr. Volker Thiel, published a relatively simple recipe to artificially cook up SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in the lab. It required only two main ingredients: synthetic chunks of the virus’s genomic instructions, which can be ordered online; and yeast. In experienced hands, the process isn’t much harder than baking sourdough bread from a self-made starter."
&
"Yet there’s a dark side to that broader access: the same platform used to make SARS-CoV-2 from scratch can potentially also make it more deadly or more transmissible. In nightmare scenarios, the same technology that could rid us of the plague could also turn it into a bioweapon."