First Synthetic Virus - Polio

July, 2002
Scientists have assembled the first synthetic virus.
The researchers built the infectious agent from scratch using the genome sequence for polio
To construct the virus, the researchers say they followed a recipe they downloaded from the internet and used gene sequences from a mail-order supplier.
Having constructed the virus, which appears to be identical to its natural counterpart, the researchers, from the University of New York at Stony Brook, injected it into mice to demonstrate that it was active.
The animals were paralysed and then died.
"The reason we did it was to prove that it can be done and it now is a reality," said Dr Eckard Wimmer, leader of the biomedical research team and co-author of the study published in the journal Science.

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[phoenix88801]

Interesting concept!! But he succeeded by putting cDNA of polio genome in to cell free extract, which later codes for viral genome and made the infectious virus. But how he managed to get the RdRp of polio virus to transcribe the genome, as at initial he only put the cDNA with aneucleated cell free extract!! He could really failed,if he used viral RNA directly as template genome.

[SteU4IA]

no shorts in the lab!