Surely many are familiar with various works in which scientists in a secret laboratory synthesized a deadly virus. So, the procedure for artificially creating viruses has ceased to be something from the field of science fiction. For example, recently, as reported by Engadget, a group of researchers managed to "resurrect" an already extinct horsepox virus.
The specialists managed to carry out a complete restoration of the genome of the original virus using artificially synthesized DNA strands. Each chain was 30,000 bp in length. The complete genome of the virus is 212,000 base pairs. After it was "harvested", it was implanted into somatic cells infected with the closest relative horsepox. Later, during the replication of new viruses, in some cases, the synthesized DNA replaced the DNA of the “relative”. Thus, a viable form of the virus appeared at the exit.
It should be said that such studies represent not only a breakthrough in medicine and pharmacology, but also a rather great danger. On the one hand, the experiment was sponsored by Tonix, which plans to use the resurrected virus as a means of efficient transportation of smallpox vaccine. In addition, artificially created viruses can act as an individual means of fighting cancer, when a special strain of the "curative virus" can be grown for each patient.
On the other hand, despite the fact that the resulting horsepox is not dangerous for humans, if the new technology falls into the wrong hands, it will make it possible to synthesize extremely dangerous strains of viruses. No wonder the leading scientific publications in the person of Nature and Science refused to publish a research paper on this topic. Since potentially such information can be used to create biological weapons.
Vladimir Kuznetsov