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Mice were exposed to "chimeric recombinant" versions created by the scientists, which carried the Omicron variant's spike protein combined with the "backbone" of the original strain. Similar kinds of recombinant variants have evolved in the wild.
The experiments may have also required clearance first by the federal government's rules governing experiments that could lead to a "gain of function" in the virus, the NIH said. This kind of research is supposed to be vetted by a group of experts convened by the federal government before it can be funded.
However, Boston University says it "did not have an obligation to disclose this research" to the NIH.
The research was also conducted in the university's "BSL-3" lab. That is the second-highest tier of precautions scientists can take when studying viruses, short of those taken for studying the most dangerous pathogens "for which no vaccine or therapy is available."
The study's lead author, Mohsan Saeed, and other experts have cited other research that have performed similar kinds of experiments without controversy.
One study co-authored by Food and Drug Administration researchers over the summer also generated "chimeric viruses" with the Omicron and ancestral strains to test on mice.
"First, these are unquestionably gain-of-function experiments. As many have noted, this is a very broad term encompassing many harmless and some potentially dangerous experiments," Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard University and key official in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's forecasting arm, said Wednesday on Twitter.
https://news.yahoo.com/nih-investigates-...00321.html
The experiments may have also required clearance first by the federal government's rules governing experiments that could lead to a "gain of function" in the virus, the NIH said. This kind of research is supposed to be vetted by a group of experts convened by the federal government before it can be funded.
However, Boston University says it "did not have an obligation to disclose this research" to the NIH.
The research was also conducted in the university's "BSL-3" lab. That is the second-highest tier of precautions scientists can take when studying viruses, short of those taken for studying the most dangerous pathogens "for which no vaccine or therapy is available."
The study's lead author, Mohsan Saeed, and other experts have cited other research that have performed similar kinds of experiments without controversy.
One study co-authored by Food and Drug Administration researchers over the summer also generated "chimeric viruses" with the Omicron and ancestral strains to test on mice.
"First, these are unquestionably gain-of-function experiments. As many have noted, this is a very broad term encompassing many harmless and some potentially dangerous experiments," Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard University and key official in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's forecasting arm, said Wednesday on Twitter.
https://news.yahoo.com/nih-investigates-...00321.html
