Articles on Gain-of-function

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Gain-of-function experiments in the lab can help researchers get ahead of viruses naturally gaining the ability to infect people in the wild. KTSDesign/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

Gain‑of‑function research is more than just tweaking risky viruses – it’s a routine and essential tool in all biology research

Seema Lakdawala, University of Pittsburgh and Anice Lowen, Emory University

From cancer immunotherapy and antibiotics to GMO crops and pandemic surveillance, gain of function is a cornerstone of basic research.
In February 2021, a World Health Organization team investigating the origins of COVID-19 visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

Why gain‑of‑function research matters

David Gillum, Arizona State University; Rebecca Moritz, Colorado State University; Megan J. Palmer, Stanford University, and Sam Weiss Evans, Harvard Kennedy School

The research community is taking a closer look at the lab-leak hypothesis for the origin of COVID-19, prompting discussion about the risks and benefits of engineering viruses.
A security guard leads reporters away from the Wuhan Institute of Virology after a WHO team arrived for a field visit in Wuhan, Hubei province of China, Feb. 3, 2021. The team came to no conclusions about the origins of the pandemic. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Origins of SARS‑CoV‑2: Why the lab‑leak idea is being considered again

Benoit Barbeau, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

Gain-of-function studies make a natural virus more dangerous or transmissible to humans. Could the Wuhan Institute of Virology be the source of SARS-CoV-2?

Related Topics

  1. Avian flu H5N1
  2. BSL-4
  3. Coronavirus
  4. COVID-19
  5. Laboratory studies
  6. Penicillin antibiotics
  7. Research oversight
  8. SARS-CoV-2
  9. Virology
  10. Zoonoses

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