General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWash U Researchers Genetically Engineer Coronavirus Lookalike
Scientists need a lot of safety equipment to study the coronavirus in a research lab: biohazard suits, respirators, custom airflow systems.
Not every lab meets the safety standards to work with potentially lethal viruses and getting certified can take years.
There isn't really enough capacity for the current demand to work with SARS-CoV-2, so its created a bottleneck, said Sean Whelan, a microbiology professor and virologist at Washington University.
To allow more labs to conduct coronavirus research, Whelan and a team of Washington University researchers devised a workaround: a genetically engineered virus.
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/health-science-environment/2020-08-10/wash-u-researchers-genetically-engineer-coronavirus-lookalike