Gao Peng, Ma Shiwen, Lu Daru, Mitcham Carl, Jing Yijia, Wang Guoyu
The Human Phenome Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.
Law School, Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu, Anhui, 233030, China.
Synth Syst Biotechnol. 2020 Apr 2;5(2):59-61. doi: 10.1016/j.synbio.2020.03.002. eCollection 2020 Jun.
In response to the outbreak of COVID-19 that has been sweeping the world, scientists reconstructed the SARS-CoV-2 rapidly using a synthetic genomics platform, in order to accelerate therapeutics and vaccine development. However, given the dual-use nature of this technology, there exists a high biosecurity risk. This paper points out the potential risks of the engineering SARS-CoV-2 virus and puts forward 6 questions to this work. The authors emphasize that the two basic values of safety/security and intellectual freedom of research must be considered evenly. From the perspective of responsible development of biotechnology, this paper calls for a careful assessment to the risks of the technology, replacing risky technologies with safe ones. The risks of publication also need to be strictly assessed. The authors believe, in addition to enhancing the "self-government" and self-discipline of scientists and scientific communities, government supervision must be reinforced, laws and regulations should be improved, and global regulation framework ought to be constructed.
为应对席卷全球的新冠疫情，科学家们利用合成基因组学平台迅速重建了新冠病毒，以加速治疗方法和疫苗的研发。然而，鉴于这项技术的两用性质，存在很高的生物安全风险。本文指出了改造新冠病毒的潜在风险，并针对这项工作提出了6个问题。作者强调，必须同等重视安全保障和研究学术自由这两个基本价值。从生物技术负责任发展的角度来看，本文呼吁对该技术的风险进行仔细评估，用安全技术取代有风险的技术。发表相关内容的风险也需要严格评估。作者认为，除了加强科学家和科学界的“自治”与自律外，还必须加强政府监管，完善法律法规，构建全球监管框架。
