The question of whether the COVID-19 virus escaped from a lab in China instead of being passed in nature from an animal to a human has become a hotly debated one. Part of that debate has centered on a ...

Gain-of-function experiments in the lab can help researchers get ahead of viruses naturally gaining the ability to infect people in the wild. KTSDesign/Science Photo Library via Getty Images As ...

Viruses known as 'jumbo' phages are seen as a potential tool against deadly bacterial infections. But scientists must first decipher the extraordinary makeup of these mysterious viruses. Researchers ...

On October 14, a team of scientists at Boston University released a pre-print study reporting that they had created a version of SARS-CoV-2 combining two features of different, existing strains that ...

Colin D. Butler is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for Doctors for the Environment, Australia. The United Nations Environment Programme recently published a scientific review that looks ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) The term “gain of function” is often taken to refer to research with viruses that puts ...

Called gain of function research, some are speculating that it could have been responsible for the COVID-19 virus and the pandemic it created. What is gain of function research and how could it have ...

The term “gain of function” is often taken to refer to research with viruses that puts society at risk of an infectious disease outbreak for questionable gain. Some research on emerging viruses can ...