Scientists at Boston University are experimenting with various strains of the coronavirus on mice. AP
Scientists at Boston University are experimenting with various strains of the coronavirus on mice. AP
Scientists at Boston University are experimenting with various strains of the coronavirus on mice. AP
Scientists at Boston University are experimenting with various strains of the coronavirus on mice. AP

Why are Boston University scientists experimenting with even deadlier Covid strain?


Daniel Bardsley
  • English
  • Arabic

Scientists at Boston University have developed a form of coronavirus that killed 80 per cent of the mice they tested it on — reigniting the debate over the use of experimental lab research involving deadly pathogens.

Amid the furore, the university hit back at “false and inaccurate” media coverage that “sensationalised” the research.

It insisted that the experiments did not result in the creation of a more virulent form of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

The researchers were interested in whether the Omicron variant really was less pathogenic than the original form of coronavirus.

Without it we wouldn’t have half the antivirals or vaccines we do have.
Prof Paul Digard,
University of Edinburgh

It was not, the university said, “gain-of-function” research, which are studies in which scientists create a more dangerous form of a pathogen, such as bacteria or viruses, for research purposes.

While Boston University officials criticised the media, the coverage highlighted concerns that date back many years over laboratory research on pathogens.

Prof Paul Digard, chairman of the virology department at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, said it was “absolutely beyond doubt” that studies on genetically modified viruses were “more than justified”.

“Without it, we wouldn’t have half the antivirals or vaccines we do have,” said Prof Digard, whose lab at the university’s Roslin Institute “makes mutant flu viruses routinely”, although these are not necessarily more harmful forms.

“It is vital to make mutant viruses to understand how they work. If you don’t understand them, it is much harder to design an intervention.”

  • US President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid-19 in July 2022. Reuters
    US President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid-19 in July 2022. Reuters
  • Former US president Donald Trump gives the thumbs-up after leaving the Walter Reed Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland, where he was treated for Covid-19 in October 2020. AFP
    Former US president Donald Trump gives the thumbs-up after leaving the Walter Reed Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland, where he was treated for Covid-19 in October 2020. AFP
  • Mr Trump removes his mask after returning to the White House from hospital in October 2020. AFP
    Mr Trump removes his mask after returning to the White House from hospital in October 2020. AFP
  • Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune spent a month in Germany in January 2021, where he had surgery after developing complications linked to Covid-19. AFP
    Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune spent a month in Germany in January 2021, where he had surgery after developing complications linked to Covid-19. AFP
  • Britain's Queen Elizabeth II had Covid-19 in February 2022, months before her death. AFP
    Britain's Queen Elizabeth II had Covid-19 in February 2022, months before her death. AFP
  • Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson caught Covid-19 in March 2020. AFP
    Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson caught Covid-19 in March 2020. AFP
  • Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tested positive for Covid-19 a second time in July 2022, six months after he first contracted the virus. Reuters
    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tested positive for Covid-19 a second time in July 2022, six months after he first contracted the virus. Reuters
  • Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tested positive for Covid-19 in January 2022, after having first contracted the coronavirus in early 2021. AP
    Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tested positive for Covid-19 in January 2022, after having first contracted the coronavirus in early 2021. AP
  • Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for Covid-19 in July 2020. Reuters
    Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for Covid-19 in July 2020. Reuters
  • Departing Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi contracted the virus that causes Covid-19 in April 2022. EPA
    Departing Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi contracted the virus that causes Covid-19 in April 2022. EPA

Bird flu experiments

In the US, a funding ban on certain gain-of-function research in place under former president Barack Obama was lifted under his successor Donald Trump.

Undertaken by researchers in the US and the Netherlands, the work involved making the H5N1 bird flu virus more transmissible in mammals, something that could potentially lead to the virus’s spread between people.

Prof Digard, who was not connected to the studies, insisted such research could offer valuable information.

For example, by knowing which mutations make H5N1 more transmissible in mammals, scientists are better able to assess whether bird flu spreading among poultry could subsequently pass from person to person.

Such research is carried out at a high-security level.

“The important thing is that people who do the work think about what they’re doing. Nobody does this just for the sake of it,” he said.

'There have been lab accidents'

A incident in 2014 involving anthrax at the Centres for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, was among the most high-profile lab accidents in recent years. AFP
A incident in 2014 involving anthrax at the Centres for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, was among the most high-profile lab accidents in recent years. AFP

Among the academics concerned about some gain-of-function research is Prof Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard University in the US.

In 2018, shortly after the US government's lifting of its moratorium on funding some gain-of-function research, he said that he and others were worried “that human error could lead to the accidental release of a virus that has been enhanced in the lab so that it is more deadly or more contagious than it already is”.

“There have already been accidents involving pathogens,” he said in an interview published by Harvard University.

“For example, in 2014, dozens of workers at a US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention lab were accidentally exposed to anthrax that was improperly handled.

“Another accident like that — if it involved a virus that was both newly created and highly contagious — has the potential to jeopardise [the lives of] millions of people.”

He said questions about what makes flu viruses more transmissible could be answered by experiments that used parts of the virus, rather than the whole live virus, and by comparisons of genetic sequences.

However, Soren Holm, a professor of bioethics at the University of Manchester, said there are “good reasons for performing gain-of-function studies”.

But while there are internationally recognised biosafety levels that labs have to adhere to when handling potentially dangerous material, Prof Holm cautioned that “you can never say” an accident could not happen.

Another concern sometimes expressed about gain-of-function research, he said, was that the knowledge could be misused, such as for terrorist purposes.

“There’s lots of speculation about this but, as far as I know, there has never been any effective bioterrorist attack,” he said.

While the recent Boston University research generated interest in the media, the coverage is dwarfed by the thousands of articles speculating on the possible laboratory origin of Sars-CoV-2.

Speculation centres on whether the virus, which emerged in Wuhan in China late 2019, came from a “wet market” selling wild animals or from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has carried out research on coronaviruses.

A 2015 paper in the journal Nature, written by scientists from the institute, described work to genetically engineer coronaviruses and said: “Our work suggests a potential risk of Sars-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations.”

Nature added a note to the paper saying that the article was “being used as the basis for unverified theories that the novel coronavirus causing Covid-19 was engineered” and that there was “no evidence that this is true”.

Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases specialist and professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia in the UK, said the true origin of Sars-CoV-2 would “never be proved 100 per cent, either way”.

However, he said the evidence was “very strongly against it being a lab escape”.

“Covid is almost certainly down to the illegal wildlife trade in China and not to a lab leak,” he said.

MATCH INFO

Liverpool v Manchester City, Sunday, 8.30pm UAE

The biog

Name: Sari Al Zubaidi

Occupation: co-founder of Cafe di Rosati

Age: 42

Marital status: single

Favourite drink: drip coffee V60

Favourite destination: Bali, Indonesia 

Favourite book: 100 Years of Solitude 

UK’s AI plan
  • AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
  • £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
  • £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
  • £250m to train new AI models
Stree

Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Movies
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 3.5

The biog

Job: Fitness entrepreneur, body-builder and trainer

Favourite superhero: Batman

Favourite quote: We must become the change we want to see, by Mahatma Gandhi.

Favourite car: Lamborghini

STAR%20WARS%20JEDI%3A%20SURVIVOR
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDeveloper%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Respawn%20Entertainment%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Electronic%20Arts%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EConsoles%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20PC%2C%20Playstation%205%2C%20Xbox%20Series%20X%20and%20S%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES

UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
Saturday 15 January: v Canada
Thursday 20 January: v England
Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh

UAE squad
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly, Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya Shetty, Kai Smith

Getting%20there
%3Cp%3EGiven%20its%20remote%20location%2C%20getting%20to%20Borneo%20can%20feel%20daunting%20even%20for%20the%20most%20seasoned%20traveller.%20But%20you%20can%20fly%20directly%20from%20Kuala%20Lumpur%20to%20Sandakan%20and%20Sepilok%20is%20only%20half%20an%20hour%20away%20by%20taxi.%20Sandakan%20has%20plenty%20of%20accommodation%20options%2C%20while%20Sepilok%20has%20a%20few%20nature%20lodges%20close%20to%20the%20main%20attractions.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Paatal Lok season two

Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy 

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

Rating: 4.5/5

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Director: James Cameron

Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana

Rating: 4.5/5

Greatest Royal Rumble results

John Cena pinned Triple H in a singles match

Cedric Alexander retained the WWE Cruiserweight title against Kalisto

Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt win the Raw Tag Team titles against Cesaro and Sheamus

Jeff Hardy retained the United States title against Jinder Mahal

Bludgeon Brothers retain the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Usos

Seth Rollins retains the Intercontinental title against The Miz, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe

AJ Styles remains WWE World Heavyweight champion after he and Shinsuke Nakamura are both counted out

The Undertaker beats Rusev in a casket match

Brock Lesnar retains the WWE Universal title against Roman Reigns in a steel cage match

Braun Strowman won the 50-man Royal Rumble by eliminating Big Cass last

Trump v Khan

2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US

2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks

2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit

2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”

2022:  Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency

July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”

Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.

Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”

Match info

Uefa Champions League Group B

Barcelona v Tottenham Hotspur, midnight

Cricket World Cup League 2

UAE squad

Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind

Fixtures

Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE

Drishyam 2

Directed by: Jeethu Joseph

Starring: Mohanlal, Meena, Ansiba, Murali Gopy

Rating: 4 stars

SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20SAMSUNG%20GALAXY%20S24%20ULTRA
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SPECS

Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
On sale: Now

Fatherland

Kele Okereke

(BMG)

Company%20Profile
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Jordan cabinet changes

In

  • Raed Mozafar Abu Al Saoud, Minister of Water and Irrigation
  • Dr Bassam Samir Al Talhouni, Minister of Justice
  • Majd Mohamed Shoueikeh, State Minister of Development of Foundation Performance
  • Azmi Mahmud Mohafaza, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research
  • Falah Abdalla Al Ammoush, Minister of Public Works and Housing
  • Basma Moussa Ishakat, Minister of Social Development
  • Dr Ghazi Monawar Al Zein, Minister of Health
  • Ibrahim Sobhi Alshahahede, Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Environment
  • Dr Mohamed Suleiman Aburamman, Minister of Culture and Minister of Youth

Out

  • Dr Adel Issa Al Tawissi, Minister of High Education and Scientific Research
  • Hala Noaman “Basiso Lattouf”, Minister of Social Development
  • Dr Mahmud Yassin Al Sheyab, Minister of Health
  • Yahya Moussa Kasbi, Minister of Public Works and Housing
  • Nayef Hamidi Al Fayez, Minister of Environment
  • Majd Mohamed Shoueika, Minister of Public Sector Development
  • Khalid Moussa Al Huneifat, Minister of Agriculture
  • Dr Awad Abu Jarad Al Mushakiba, Minister of Justice
  • Mounir Moussa Ouwais, Minister of Water and Agriculture
  • Dr Azmi Mahmud Mohafaza, Minister of Education
  • Mokarram Mustafa Al Kaysi, Minister of Youth
  • Basma Mohamed Al Nousour, Minister of Culture
The Specs

Price, base Dh379,000
Engine 2.9-litre, twin-turbo V6
Gearbox eight-speed automatic
Power 503bhp
Torque 443Nm
On sale now

Gulf Under 19s final

Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B

Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Takestep%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20March%202018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Mohamed%20Khashaba%2C%20Mohamed%20Abdallah%2C%20Mohamed%20Adel%20Wafiq%20and%20Ayman%20Taha%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Cairo%2C%20Egypt%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20health%20technology%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EEmployees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2011%20full%20time%20and%2022%20part%20time%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20pre-Series%20A%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Skoda Superb Specs

Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol

Power: 190hp

Torque: 320Nm

Price: From Dh147,000

Available: Now

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Specs%3A%202024%20McLaren%20Artura%20Spider
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.0-litre%20twin-turbo%20V6%20and%20electric%20motor%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EMax%20power%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20700hp%20at%207%2C500rpm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EMax%20torque%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20720Nm%20at%202%2C250rpm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Eight-speed%20dual-clutch%20auto%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E0-100km%2Fh%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.0sec%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETop%20speed%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E330kph%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh1.14%20million%20(%24311%2C000)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Updated: May 31, 2023, 6:42 AM