Gain of Function (GOF)

By Atom Bergstrom

Atom’s Blog

According to Dr. Google …

“Gain-of-function (gof) genetic diseases, as the term indicates, are caused by the ectopic or increased activity of the mutated gene product.”

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The current pandemic has been in the works for a long time.

Here are excerpts from two Wikipedia pages to ponder. (Go to the originals for more information.)

1) BGI Group (Beijing Genomics Institute)

“In 2021, details came to light about multiple controversies involving the BGI Group. These controversies include alleged collaboration with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and use of genetic data from prenatal tests, which number in the millions, to ‘map the prevalence of viruses in Chinese women, look for indicators of mental illness in them, and single out Tibetan and Uyghur minorities to find links between their genes and their characteristics.'” (last updated Oct. 24, 2021)

“In May 2017, was announced formation of West Coast Innovation Center, co-located in Seattle and San Jose, on the first location planned to work on precision medicine and feature collaborations with University of Washington, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Washington State University, while on the second’s already existing laboratory with 100 employees to develop the next-generation sequencing technologies. In May 2018, was reached an agreement with Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto), Canada, for first installation of BGISEQ platforms in North America.”(last updated Oct. 24, 2021)

According to Dr. Google …

“BGISEQ-500 is an industry leading high-throughput sequencing solution, powered by combinatorial Probe-Anchor Synthesis (cPAS) and improved DNA Nanoballs (DNB) technology.”

2) Earth BioGenome Project

“The Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) is an initiative that aims to sequence and catalog the genomes of all of Earth’s currently described eukaryotic species [1.5 million known eukaryotic species] over a period of ten years.” (last edited Oct. 22, 2021)

“According to PNAS paper, several sequencing centers are supporting the project, including BGI (China), Baylor College of Medicine (USA), Wellcome Sanger Institute (UK), Rockefeller University (US), with an additional center to be established for the project in South America by São Paulo Research Foundation.” (last edited Oct. 22, 2021)

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Now check this out.

According to the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases …

“For several years, NIAID has had a robust intramural and extramural relationship with China focused on biomedical research and training. Many of the research grants with China involve HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases, SARS, parasitic diseases (e.g., malaria and schistosomiasis), dengue fever, and influenza. In 2006, about 135 visiting scientists from China were working as collaborators and trainees in NIAID intramural laboratories.”

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Jocelyn Kaiser (“Controversial experiments that could make bird flu more risky poised to resume: Two ‘gain of function’ projects halted more than 4 years ago have passed new U.S. review process,” Feb. 8, 2019) wrote …

“One of the projects has already received funding from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in Bethesda, Maryland, and will start in a few weeks; the other is awaiting funding.”

According to the same source …

“In 2011, [Ron] Fouchier and [Yoshihiro] Kawaoka alarmed the world by revealing they had separately modified the deadly avian H5N1 influenza virus so that it spread between ferrets. Advocates of such gain of function (GOF) studies say they can help public health experts better understand how viruses might spread and plan for pandemics. But by enabling the bird virus to more easily spread among mammals, the experiments also raised fears that the pathogen could jump to humans. And critics of the work worried that such a souped-up virus could spark a pandemic if it escaped from a lab or was intentionally released by a bioterrorist. After extensive discussion about whether the two studies should even be published (they ultimately were) and a voluntary moratorium by the two labs, the experiments resumed in 2013 under new U.S. oversight rules.”

According to the same source …

“The outcome may not satisfy scientists who believe certain studies that aim to make pathogens more potent or more likely to spread in mammals are so risky they should be limited or even banned. Some are upset because the government’s review will not be made public.”

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