Virology-the path forward

Angela L Rasmussen; Gigi K Gronvall; Anice C Lowen; Felicia Goodrum; James Alwine; Kristian G Andersen; Simon J Anthony; Joel Baines; Arinjay Banerjee; Andrew J Broadbent; Christopher B Brooke; Samuel K Campos; Patrizia Caposio; Arturo Casadevall; Gary C Chan; Anna R Cliffe; Donna Collins-McMillen; Nancy Connell; Blossom Damania; Matthew D Daugherty; Kari Debbink; Terence S Dermody; Daniel DiMaio; W Paul Duprex; Michael Emerman; Denise A Galloway; Robert F Garry; Stephen A Goldstein; Alexander L Greninger; Amy L Hartman; Brenda G Hogue; Stacy M Horner; Peter J Hotez; Jae U Jung; Jeremy P Kamil; Stephanie M Karst; Lou Laimins; Seema S Lakdawala; Igor Landais; Michael Letko; Brett Lindenbach; Shan-Lu Liu; Micah Luftig; Grant McFadden; Andrew Mehle; Juliet Morrison; Anne Moscona; Elke Mühlberger; Joshua Munger; Karl Münger; Eain Murphy; Christopher J Neufeldt; Janko Z Nikolich; Christine M O'Connor; Andrew Pekosz; Sallie R Permar; Julie K Pfeiffer; Saskia V Popescu; John G Purdy; Vincent R Racaniello; Charles M Rice; Jonathan A Runstadler; Martin J Sapp; Rona S Scott; Gregory A Smith; Erin M Sorrell; Emily Speranza; Daniel Streblow; Scott A Tibbetts; Zsolt Toth; Koenraad Van Doorslaer; Susan R Weiss; Elizabeth A White; Timothy M White; Christiane E Wobus; Michael Worobey; Satoko Yamaoka; Andrew Yurochko

doi:10.1128/jvi.01791-23

Virology-the path forward

J Virol. 2024 Jan 23;98(1):e0179123. doi: 10.1128/jvi.01791-23. Epub 2024 Jan 3.

Authors

Angela L Rasmussen^{1

2

3}, Gigi K Gronvall⁴, Anice C Lowen⁵, Felicia Goodrum⁶, James Alwine⁷, Kristian G Andersen⁸, Simon J Anthony⁹, Joel Baines¹⁰, Arinjay Banerjee¹, Andrew J Broadbent¹¹, Christopher B Brooke¹², Samuel K Campos⁶, Patrizia Caposio¹³, Arturo Casadevall¹⁴, Gary C Chan¹⁵, Anna R Cliffe¹⁶, Donna Collins-McMillen⁶, Nancy Connell¹⁷, Blossom Damania¹⁸, Matthew D Daugherty¹⁹, Kari Debbink¹⁴, Terence S Dermody²⁰, Daniel DiMaio²¹, W Paul Duprex^{22

23}, Michael Emerman²⁴, Denise A Galloway²⁴, Robert F Garry²⁵, Stephen A Goldstein²⁶, Alexander L Greninger²⁷, Amy L Hartman²⁸, Brenda G Hogue²⁹, Stacy M Horner³⁰, Peter J Hotez^{31

32}, Jae U Jung³³, Jeremy P Kamil³⁴, Stephanie M Karst³⁵, Lou Laimins³⁶, Seema S Lakdawala⁵, Igor Landais¹³, Michael Letko³⁷, Brett Lindenbach³⁸, Shan-Lu Liu^{36

39}, Micah Luftig⁴⁰, Grant McFadden²⁹, Andrew Mehle⁴¹, Juliet Morrison⁴², Anne Moscona^{43

44

45}, Elke Mühlberger⁴⁶, Joshua Munger⁴⁷, Karl Münger⁴⁸, Eain Murphy¹⁵, Christopher J Neufeldt⁵, Janko Z Nikolich^{6

49}, Christine M O'Connor⁵⁰, Andrew Pekosz¹⁴, Sallie R Permar⁵¹, Julie K Pfeiffer⁵², Saskia V Popescu⁵³, John G Purdy⁶, Vincent R Racaniello⁴³, Charles M Rice⁵⁴, Jonathan A Runstadler⁵⁵, Martin J Sapp³⁴, Rona S Scott³⁴, Gregory A Smith³⁶, Erin M Sorrell⁴, Emily Speranza⁵⁶, Daniel Streblow¹³, Scott A Tibbetts³⁵, Zsolt Toth⁵⁷, Koenraad Van Doorslaer⁶, Susan R Weiss⁵⁸, Elizabeth A White⁵⁹, Timothy M White⁶, Christiane E Wobus⁶⁰, Michael Worobey⁶¹, Satoko Yamaoka⁶², Andrew Yurochko³⁴

Affiliations

¹ Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
² Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
³ Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA.
⁴ Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁵ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁶ Department of Immunobiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
⁷ Department of Cancer Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁸ Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Scripps Research, La Jolla, California, USA.
⁹ Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
¹¹ Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
¹² Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
¹³ Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Beaverton, Oregon, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, New York, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Medicine, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Molecular Biology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
²⁰ Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
²¹ Department of Genetics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
²² Center for Vaccine Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
²³ Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
²⁴ Human Biology Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, USA.
²⁵ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
²⁶ Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
²⁷ Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
²⁸ Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
²⁹ School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA.
³⁰ Department of Integrative Immunobiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
³¹ Department of Pediatrics, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
³² Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
³³ Department of Cancer Biology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
³⁴ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.
³⁵ Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
³⁶ Department of Microbiology, Ohio State University, Wooster, Ohio, USA.
³⁷ Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA.
³⁸ Department of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale University, New Haven, USA.
³⁹ Viruses and Emerging Pathogens Program, Infectious Diseases Institute, Ohio State University, Wooster, Ohio, USA.
⁴⁰ Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
⁴¹ Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
⁴² Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California, USA.
⁴³ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
⁴⁴ Department of Physiology, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
⁴⁵ Department of Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
⁴⁶ Department of Virology, Immunology, and Microbiology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁴⁷ Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA.
⁴⁸ Department of Developmental, Molecular, and Chemical Biology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁴⁹ Aegis Consortium for a Pandemic-Free Future, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
⁵⁰ Department of Infection Biology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
⁵¹ Department of Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
⁵² Department of Microbiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
⁵³ Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁵⁴ Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York, USA.
⁵⁵ Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, North Grafton, Massachusetts, USA.
⁵⁶ Florida Research and Innovation Center, Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, Port St. Lucie, Florida, USA.
⁵⁷ Department of Oral Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
⁵⁸ Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁵⁹ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁶⁰ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
⁶¹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
⁶² Department of Infectious Diseases, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.

Abstract

In the United States (US), biosafety and biosecurity oversight of research on viruses is being reappraised. Safety in virology research is paramount and oversight frameworks should be reviewed periodically. Changes should be made with care, however, to avoid impeding science that is essential for rapidly reducing and responding to pandemic threats as well as addressing more common challenges caused by infectious diseases. Decades of research uniquely positioned the US to be able to respond to the COVID-19 crisis with astounding speed, delivering life-saving vaccines within a year of identifying the virus. We should embolden and empower this strength, which is a vital part of protecting the health, economy, and security of US citizens. Herein, we offer our perspectives on priorities for revised rules governing virology research in the US.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; biosafety; emergence; oversight; virology.

MeSH terms

Biomedical Research* / standards
COVID-19
Containment of Biohazards*
Humans
United States
Virology*
Viruses