by Frank Bergman, Slay News:
A group of scientists has used gain-of-function research to engineer a deadly mutated strain of “bird flu” that has been weaponized to spread among humans.
South Korean researchers combined three strains of the bird flu to create a new mutant version of the virus.
The researchers boast that the newly engineered mutant has increased viral stability, altered host targeting, and enhanced human cell entry.
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The new virus can spread rapidly through human populations due to the potential for aerosol transmission, the scientists reveal.
The development of the new chimeric virus was revealed in a new study.
The study’s paper was published this week in the Virology Journal.
The paper reveals that scientists constructed a chimeric virus with altered heat resistance, receptor binding, and cell entry capabilities.
They were able to engineer this new virus by combining gene segments from three distinct influenza viruses.
They then applied directed mutations to increase replication and stability.
Highly pathogenic bird flu viruses require BSL-3 containment due to their potential for aerosol transmission and serious health risks.
The experiments come as President Donald Trump’s administration has announced a fresh crackdown on “dangerous gain-of-function research.”
The timing raises alarm over the use of high-risk virological techniques to create brand new, pandemic-level viruses under the guise of vaccine development.
Just last week, the White House confirmed that the Covid pandemic was caused by a virus engineered during gain-of-function experiments.
Researchers introduced specific mutations to enhance the thermal resilience of the virus.
These modifications mean the mutant virus can survive longer under higher temperatures.
“We identified a key mutation (R90K) that increases heat stability while preserving antigenicity,” the researchers wrote in the study’s paper.
“Combining the R90K and H110Y mutations (22W_KY) resulted in a synergistic increase in thermal stability and maintained HA activity without measurable reduction even after 4 h at 52 °C.”
These alterations directly transform the physical durability of the virus.
It allows the virus to persist in conditions that would otherwise degrade its infectivity.
Thermal stabilization is a functional enhancement, meeting the definition of gain-of-function.
The authors further engineered viral replication traits by modifying the PB2 gene to boost replication in chicken eggs.
