Prognosis
The DNA Cops Who Make Sure the World’s Deadliest Viruses Aren’t Rebuilt
Ginkgo Bioworks is helping stop a new class of lethal biological weapons from being created.
Jason Kelly, co-founder and Ginkgo Bioworks, at the company’s offices in Boston, on June 21, 2018.
Photographer: Scott Eisen/BloombergGenetic engineering could help produce more resilient crops and more effective vaccines. Some fear that it could also be used to make a biological weapon.
In January, a small research team at the University of Alberta engineered a cousin of the lethal smallpox virus called horsepox, using strands of DNA they received in the mail. The organism that they built wasn’t a threat to humans.