Reflections on the biosafety of coronavirus research based on synthetic biology methods
10.3760/cma.j.cn112866-20200618-00190
- VernacularTitle:基于合成生物学方法研究冠状病毒的生物安全思考
- Author:
Xiaomei ZENG
1
;
Jun WENG
;
Li SU
Author Information
1. 华中科技大学生命科学与技术学院，武汉 430074
- Keywords:
Coronavirus;
Synthetic biology methods;
Biosafety;
Risk assessment;
Supervision and regulation
- From:
Chinese Journal of Experimental and Clinical Virology
2021;35(1):18-21
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and 2019-nCoV can cause severe respiratory diseases in humans, which brings huge difficulties and challenges to public health and clinical treatment in nearly all countries in the world. This also put forward urgent demands for the analysis of the pathogenic mechanism of the virus and the research and development of antiviral drugs and vaccines. As an emerging subject, synthetic biology is characterized by rapid synthesis, accurate gene construction and easy getting mutations. As a result, synthetic biology method and techniques are also being used to study coronaviruses to speed up the understanding of the pathogenesis and the development of drugs and vaccines. However, some coronaviruses have the characteristics of high pathogenicity and strong infectivity, coupled with the uncertainty and complexity of synthetic biology, the study of coronaviruses based on synthetic biology method may produce new biosafety risks. Therefore, for the coronavirus research based on synthetic biology method, it is suggested to strengthen the risk assessment of biosafety, establish the research specification, strengthen the examination and approval, and intensify the supervision and regulation, so as to ensure the biosafety of the research to avoid the risk as much as possible and finally realize the advantages and social significance of the research and ensure the healthy development of human society.
