A new assessment says that avian flu "gain of function" research poses a serious outbreak risk.
A new molecular strategy could diffuse some of the controversy over lab-modified flu viruses.
Doubts about BioWatch were aired in Congress today, with a House committee chair criticizing plans and a top federal disease expert expressing concerns.
Kansas officials break ground on new federal biodefense lab
May 22, 2013
May 3, 2013
(CIDRAP News) – Chinese scientists report that lab-generated hybrid viruses combining genes from avian H5N1 and pandemic 2009 H1N1 (pH1N1) influenza viruses can achieve airborne spread between guinea pigs, a finding that seems likely to renew the debate about the risks of creating novel viruses that might be able to spark a human pandemic.
(CIDRAP News) – A new study suggests that a lab-derived hybrid H5N1 influenza virus that is capable of airborne transmission among ferrets may well be capable of doing the same thing in humans.
(CIDRAP News) – Chinese agriculture officials today confirmed the H7N9 virus in chickens and pigeons from Shanghai markets, providing new clues about how humans may have been exposed to the virus, which has since yesterday been detected in two more people.
(CIDRAP News) – A group of scientists acting under the aegis of a vaccine research advocacy organization has asked President Obama's bioethics committee to evaluate the ethics of experiments designed to increase the transmissibility of H5N1 avian influenza viruses.
