Synthetic poliovirus (first virus assembled from its sequence)
Poliovirus sintético (primer virus ensamblado desde su secuencia)
- Date
- 2002 · confidence high
- Place
- Stony Brook University, New York, United States
- Credited to
- Eckard Wimmer, Jeronimo Cello and Aniko Paul
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Wimmer's team reconstructed the poliovirus genome from mail-ordered oligonucleotides and published sequences, and obtained an infectious virus in a cell-free system. It showed that a virus can be created without starting from a natural one, and fuelled the debate on dual-use biology.
Published in Science (August 2002) with initial US Department of Defense funding; Wimmer was criticised over the possible route to bioterrorism.
What it led to
- synthesis of the 1918 influenza virus and other pathogens for research
- synthetic viral genomes and codon-deoptimised attenuated vaccines
- biosecurity policies and DNA synthesis screening