Further defense of the Chinese H1N1 – H5N1 study
Robert Herriman of The Global Dispatch interviewed me this week on the H1N1 – H5N1 reassortant study that has been in the headlines:
There was much written concerning the research published earlier this month in Science, where researchers from China’s Harbin Veterinary Research Institute reported creating an avian H5N1 (highly pathogenic) and pandemic 2009 H1N1 (easily transmissible) hybrid, that according to them, achieved airborne spread between guinea pigs.
Read the rest of the article at The Global Dispatch. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - May 17, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information aerosol transmission avian influenza H5N1 ferret guinea pig H1N1 reassortant viral virus Source Type: blogs
Ferreting out the truth on Science Sunday Hangout on Air
I joined Buddhini Samarasinghe, Scott Lewis, Tommy Leung, and William McEwan for a discussion of the avian influenza H5N1 virus transmission experiments done in ferrets.
(Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - May 14, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information aerosol transmission avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism ferret fouchier kawaoka pandemic viral virus Source Type: blogs
Influenza H5N1 x H1N1 reassortants: ignore the headlines, it’s good science
Those of you with an interest in virology, or perhaps simply sensationalism, have probably seen the recent headlines proclaiming another laboratory-made killer influenza virus. From The Independent: ‘Appalling irresponsibility: Senior scientists attack Chinese researchers for creating new strains of influenza virus’; and from InSing.com: ‘Made-in-China killer flu virus’. It’s unfortunate that the comments of several scientists have tainted what is a very well done set of experiments. Let’s deconstruct the situation with an analysis of the science that was done.
It is known that avian inf...
Source: virology blog - May 8, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information aerosol transmission avian H5N1 ferret guinea pig H1N1 Hualan Chen hybrid virus influenza reassortant viral Source Type: blogs
TWiV 230: Gene goes to Washington, flu chickens out
On episode #230 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent, Rich, Alan and Kathy review H7N9 infections in China, the debate over patenting genes, and receptor-binding by ferret-transmissible avian H5 influenza virus.
You can find TWiV #230 at www.twiv.tv. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - April 28, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology aerosol avian influenza H7N9 China ferret gene patent H5N1 poultry receptor binding Shanghai sialic acid Supreme Court of the United States transmission viral virus Source Type: blogs
Avian influenza H7N9 viruses isolated from humans: What do the gene sequences mean?
There have been over 60 human infections with avian influenza virus H7N9 in China, and cases have been detected outside of Shanghai, including Beijing, Zhejiang, Henan, and Anhui Provinces. Information on the first three cases has now been published, allowing a more detailed consideration of the properties of the viral isolates.
The first genome sequences reported were from the initial three H7N9 isolates: A/Shanghai/1/2013, A/Shanghai/2/2013, and A/Anhui/1/2013. These were followed by genome sequences from A/Hongzhou/1/2013 (from a male patient), A/pigeon/Shanghai/S1069/2013), A/chicken/Shanghai/S1053/2013), and A/en...
Source: virology blog - April 17, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information China H5N1 h7n9 H9N2 influenza pandemic poultry viral virus zoonosis zoonotic Source Type: blogs
Going viral at Studio 360
Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen is a radio show co-produced by Public Radio International and WNYC. The show for the week of 8 March 2013 is called ‘Going Viral‘ and includes seven segments entitled ‘Viruses at the movies’, ‘Does your zombie have rabies’, and ‘Playing against the virus’. They did speak with one virologist for a segment called ‘Reconstructing viruses‘.
To record this segment of Studio 360 I traveled down to the WNYC studios on Varick Street in New York. I sat in a glass-walled, silent room with headphones and before a large microphone. I spoke with t...
Source: virology blog - March 12, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism DURC Kurt Andersen Studio 360 viral virology virus Source Type: blogs
New Smaller, Cheaper PCR Machine for Disease Diagnosis in Remote Parts of The World
Back in 2006, researchers at Caltech created a relatively small and cheap PCR machine that was commercialized as the Eco device and sold for $13,000. This was a breakthrough, allowing public health professionals to screen people effectively during a viral epidemic like that experienced from H5N1 bird flu.While cheap enough and not too big for diagnostic work at a hospital, the Eco was still too bulky to use in areas where proper clinics don’t exist and the device required a bit of professional expertise to operate. To help tame disease in the world’s remote areas, and allow PCR testing to be performed by just ...
Source: Medgadget - February 27, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Gene Ostrovsky Tags: Diagnostics in the news... Source Type: blogs
Proposed US policy on dual use research of concern
The US Office of Science and Technology Policy recently released proposed guidelines for maximizing the benefits and minimizing misuse of life sciences research. The measures establish oversight responsibilities for universities and other institutions that receive Federal funding:
Specifically, such institutions would be required to review their current life sciences research involving those pathogens or toxins deemed to be the most dangerous or most amenable to misuse, and then work with the researchers and funding agencies to develop appropriate risk mitigation plans.
This adds to a previously announced internal policy...
Source: virology blog - February 26, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism DURC life sciences research OSTP viral virology virus Source Type: blogs
Harvard University: Great virology, bad science writing
Harvard University is home to some of the world’s finest virologists. But apparently they do not communicate with the writers at Harvard Magazine, where a botched story on the avian H5N1 influenza virus has just been published.
The problems begin with the first paragraph:
But when Dutch researchers recently created an even more deadly strain of the virus in a laboratory for research purposes, they stirred grave concerns about what would happen if it escaped into the outside world.
Readers of virology blog will know by now that the Dutch researchers did not make an ‘even more deadly strain of the virus’ &#...
Source: virology blog - February 18, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information aerosol transmission avian influenza H5N1 ferret fouchier kawaoka pandemic viral virus Source Type: blogs
Comment on H5N1 lethality in humans
In a brief letter to Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, Alan Zelicoff notes a problem with serosurveys for influenza H5N1 infection:
…peak titers after H5N1 infection occur at about 4 to 6 weeks postinfection and may drop by as much as 32-fold over the course of a year, probably decreasing the sensitivity of serologic testing for past asymptomatic infections. Micro-neutralization testing may be more sensitive.
He cites a serological survey carried out on poultry workers in South Korea, in which 9 of 2,500 subjects were found to have antibodies to H5N1 virus, in the absence of illness. These seropositive individuals carrie...
Source: virology blog - February 18, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism microneutralization serological survey serosurvey viral virus Source Type: blogs
Human infections with influenza H5N1 virus: How many?
The lethality of avian influenza H5N1 infections in humans has been a matter of extensive debate. The >50% case fatality rate established by WHO is high, but the lethality of the virus might be lower if there are many infections accompanied by mild or no disease. One way to answer this question is to determine how many individuals carry antibodies to the virus in populations that are at risk for infection. A number of such studies have been done, and some have concluded that the results imply a low but substantial level of infection (even less than one percent of millions of people is a lot of infections). The conclusio...
Source: virology blog - February 7, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information antibodies avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism case fatality ratio fatality rate infection pandemic serological survey serosurvey viral virus Source Type: blogs
The risks and benefits of influenza H5N1 research
Both Nature and the New York Times have weighed in on the resumption of influenza H5N1 research. In an editorial from 23 January 2013, Nature opines that “Experiments that make deadly pathogens more dangerous demand the utmost scrutiny”:
As several critics point out, the assessments of the relative risks and benefits of such research remain restricted to largely qualitative arguments. The formal, quantitative risk assessment common in the nuclear power and other industries could have helped to nail down and quantify risks, and would have informed the debate better. One year on, an irreproachable, independent ri...
Source: virology blog - January 29, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary aerosol transmission avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism ferret fouchier kawaoka risk benefit analysis viral virus Source Type: blogs
TWiV 217: I just flu in and my arms are shot
On episode #217 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Dickson review influenza vaccines.
You can find TWiV #217 at www.twiv.tv. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - January 27, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology adjuvant afluria cell culture efficacy egg fluarix flulaval flumist fluvirin H5N1 influenza LAIV narcolepsy pandemic pandemrix TIV vaccine viral virus Source Type: blogs
Headline writers: Please take a virology course
Yesterday Denise Grady wrote in the New York Times about the end of the moratorium on influenza H5N1 virus research. The story headline read:
Research to resume on modified, deadlier bird flu
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reprinted Ms. Grady’s story with the following headline:
Studies will resume on deadly modified flu virus
Where do these headlines come from, outer space? The H5N1 viruses produced by Kawaoka and Fouchier, which transmit by aerosol among ferrets, are far less virulent than the parental H5N1 virus! Furthermore, the moratorium applied to all research on H5N1 virus, not just that related to these ...
Source: virology blog - January 24, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Commentary Information avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism ferret fouchier headline writers kawaoka pandemic viral virology virus Source Type: blogs
End of moratorium on influenza H5N1 research
In early 2012 influenza virus researchers around the world decided to stop working on highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus. This decision came after work from the Fouchier and Kawaoka laboratories revealed the isolation of influenza H5N1 strains that can be passed among ferrets by aerosol. The moratorium on influenza H5N1 virus research has now been lifted, as described in a letter from influenza virologists to Science and Nature.
Lifting the embargo on H5N1 research is an important step forward for understanding what regulates influenza transmission. In my view it was an ill-conceived move, done to quell the growi...
Source: virology blog - January 23, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information aerosol avian influenza bioterrorism ferret fouchier H5N1 kawaoka moratorium pandemic transmission viral virus Source Type: blogs
