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Researchers Successfully Revived A Deadly Virus Extinct Decades Ago

In 2017, scientists from the University of Alberta in Canada aroused great controversy upon their declaration of having successfully recreated the genome of the horsepox virus, a relative of the deadly small pox virus, from mail-order DNA, using synthetic biology.
Scientists believe that horsepox, which hasn’t been known to be able to do harm to us, has possibily been wiped out in nature. However, the thing that concerns more is the probability that such technology could be used for bad purposes.

Source: Eye Of Science

After all, if horsepox can be recreated, what’s to stop someone from reviving smallpox — a highly contagious and often lethal virus?
Ultimately, should scientist be successful in reviving horsepox, how can we stop someone from doing the same to smallpox, a particularly contagious and extremely lethal virus?
"No question. If it's possible with horsepox, it's possible with smallpox," virologist Gerd Sutter of Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, shared in an article.

Source: Getty Images

It should be noted that small pox, wiped out in 1977, is the only human virus to be wiped out thanks to vaccination.
However, scientists believe that there are many advantages to be taken beside those remarkable drawbacks. Consequent to the genetic experiments, experts can use the horsepox vaccine to produce vaccine for mice infected with poxvirus, a family of viruses consisting of smallpox.
The synthetic DNA findings from the researchers’ work might be able to assist mankind in manufacturing more efficient vaccines, together with forming essential viruses vital to cancer treatment.
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