Scientists call for an immediate end to ‘gain-of-function’ research

The dangerous experiments with pathogens with pandemic potential should stop

by Professor Roland Wiesendanger

(14 April 2022) The current pandemic has taught us what devastating effects it can have when pathogens become extremely easily transmissible from person to person, even if the mortality rate due to the virus is only in the range of one percent or less.

For at least ten years, dangerous pathogens such as avian flu viruses or SARS-like viruses have been adapted to human cells within the framework of so-called ‘gain-of-function‘ research, which involves an enormously high risk for the outbreak of worldwide pandemics.

Such research projects continue to be financed – partly with public money – and this with much more dangerous viruses, some with lethality rates above 50 percent! A virologist at a respected US research institute recently summed up the potential danger succinctly in one sentence as follows:

“This pandemic is nothing compared to what comes next when we get airborne Nipah or Ebola.”

It is the responsibility of scientists and the media worldwide to point out this huge potential danger and to sensitise politicians as well as society as a whole.

A group of scientists from various disciplines as well as from numerous countries in Europe, America, Asia and New Zealand are therefore now addressing the global community with the following “Hamburg Declaration 2022” with the aim of immediately ending the “gain-of-function” experiments with pathogens that are dangerous for humans.

This declaration was created in the spirit of the “Göttingen Declaration” of 1957, which drew attention to the potential danger posed by nuclear weapons systems.

Hamburg Declaration 2022

Conscious of the mission and responsibility of science and research to serve the welfare of humanity, to strive for truth, and to communicate the knowledge gained to the general public, the signatories of this statement wish to call attention to a major threat to human existence that has arisen in recent years as a result of novel bioengineering techniques to modify dangerous pathogens.

Through what is generally understood as "gain-of-function" research, naturally occurring viruses are artificially adapted through changes in gene sequence to facilitate their entry into human cells, either via direct gene editing or simply via accelerated evolution in a process called passaging. This creates an enormous potential for a human pandemic, which responsible scientists and researchers have repeatedly pointed out over the past decade. In recent years, such research has been conducted on various highly dangerous pathogens such as avian influenza viruses and SARS-type coronaviruses. Much of this work has been done as part of publicly funded research projects.

The current coronavirus pandemic clearly shows what happens when pathogens are extremely easily transmitted from person to person. Millions of people have died and the livelihoods of billions of people are threatened or have been lost altogether. This enormous devastation occurred even though the mortality rate of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is comparatively low, at a level of around one percent. However, experiments are currently underway in various laboratories around the world in which much more dangerous viruses such as MERS, Ebola or Nipah viruses are being manipulated via gain-of-function.

Unfortunately, no biotechnology laboratory in the world is safe enough to guarantee that such enhanced viruses will not escape, especially given the functions that may be purposely or accidentally gained and which are often difficult to predict. A catastrophic biosecurity breach with such viruses could be fatal for a substantial proportion of the world population, especially if the transmissibility of highly dangerous viruses via the human respiratory tract is facilitated by genetic modification or some other means.

We as scientists are well aware of the importance of the freedom of science and research, but we nevertheless appeal to all governments in the world to stop such dangerous "gain-of- function" experiments. The risk of a global pandemic associated with this extreme type of research and the potential for the extinction of large portions of the world population is simply not tolerable and never should have been. Additionally, we demand that such termination be supervised and continuously monitored by an independent international regulatory agency.

Regardless of the particular form of constitution and government a country may have, every leader must act responsibly and contribute not only to the welfare of the population of his or her own country, but also to that of mankind as a whole. Human beings have learned to intervene in the basic molecular building blocks of nature; this creates many opportunities to preserve lives, but also new ways to terminate them accidentally. Let us take this responsibility seriously before it is too late.

  • Roland Wiesendanger, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c., Nanoscientist, University of Hamburg, Germany (Organizer)
  • Hiroshi Arakawa, Dr., Institute of Molecular Oncology, IFOM, Milan, Italy
  • Ute Bergner, Dr., Physicist, Jena, Germany
  • Valentin Bruttel, Dr., Immunologist, University of Würzburg, Germany
  • Colin Butler, Hon. Prof. Dr. Dr., Epidemiologist, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
  • Lounes Chikhi, Dr., Population Geneticist, CNRS, Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France
  • Jean-Michel Claverie, Prof. Dr., Dept. of Medicine, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
  • Fabien Colombo, Communication and Sociology of Science, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, France
  • Malcolm Dando, Prof. Dr., Section of Peace Studies and International Development, University of Bradford, United Kingdom
  • Étienne Decroly, Prof. Dr., Member of the Board of Directors of the French Virology Society, CNRS Director of Research, AFMB lab, UMR7257, Aix Marseille Université, Marseille, France
  • Gilles Demaneuf, Engineer and Data Scientist, Auckland, New Zealand
  • Richard Dronskowski, Prof. Dr., Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, RWTH Aachen, Germany
  • Lucia Dunn, PhD, Professor of Economics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA
  • Frank Fehrenbach, Prof. Dr., Faculty of Humanities, University of Hamburg, Germany
  • André Goffinet, Prof. Dr., Neurobiology, University of Louvain, Belgium
  • Ingrid Gogolin, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult., Department of General, Intercultural and International Comparative Education & Educational Psychology, University of Hamburg, Germany
  • Mai He, Prof. Dr., School of Medicine, Washington University, St. Louis, USA
  • Martina Hentschel, Prof. Dr., Institute of Physics, TU Chemnitz, Germany
  • Michael Hietschold, Prof. Dr., Institute of Physics, TU Chemnitz, Germany
  • Burkard Hillebrands, Prof. Dr., Dept. of Physics, TU Kaiserslautern, Germany
  • Florence Janody, Dr., i3S-Institute for Research and Innovation in Health, University of Porto, Portugal
  • Bernd Kaina, Prof. Dr., Institute of Toxicology, University of Mainz, Germany
  • Hideki Kakeya, Prof. Dr., School of Science and Technology, University of Tsukuba, Japan
  • Bernd Kretschmer, Dr. h.c., Physicist, Freiburg i. Brsg., Germany
  • Franz Kreupl, Prof. Dr., Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, TU Munich, Germany
  • Jonathan Latham, PhD, Executive Director, The Bioscience Resource Project, Ithaca, New York, USA
  • Milton Leitenberg, Senior Research Fellow, Center for International and Security Studies, University of Maryland, USA
  • Alexander Lerchl, Prof. Dr., Biology and Ethics of Science & Technology, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany
  • Alexander Lichtenstein, Prof. Dr., I. Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Hamburg, Germany
  • Steven Massey, Prof. Dr., Dept. of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • Paul-Antoine Miquel, Prof. Dr., Contemporary Biology, Toulouse 2 University, France
  • Sven-Olaf Moch, Prof. Dr., II. Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Hamburg, Germany
  • Michael Morrissey, Dr., Lecturer for English Studies, University of Kassel, Germany
  • Peter Oppeneer, Prof. Dr., Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Sweden
  • Anja Pistor-Hatam, Prof. Dr., Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Kiel, Germany
  • Arnaud Pocheville, Dr., CNRS Researcher, Evolution and Biological Diversity Laboratory, Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France
  • Steven Quay, MD, PhD, Former Facility, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA
  • Monali Rahalkar, Dr., Microbiologist, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, India
  • Bahulikar Rahul, Dr., Plant Genetics and Taxonomy Expert, Development Research Foundation, Pune, India
  • Jürgen Schmitt, Prof. Dr., Dept. of Physics, University of Hamburg, Germany
  • Nariyoshi Shinomiya, Prof. Dr., President of the National Defense Medical College, Saitama, Japan
  • Michael Stuke, Prof. Dr., Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany
  • Günter Theißen, Prof. Dr., Geneticist, University of Jena, Germany
  • André Thess, Prof. Dr., Engineering Sciences, University of Stuttgart, Germany
  • Ronny Thomale, Prof. Dr., I. Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Würzburg, Germany
  • Michael Thorwart, Prof. Dr., I. Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Hamburg, Germany
  • Rémi Tournebize, Dr., Genetics and Human Evolutionary Biology, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal
  • Frank Wilhelm, Prof. Dr., Clinical Psychology, University of Salzburg, Austria
  • Allison Wilson, PhD, Science Director, The Bioscience Resource Project, Ithaca, New York, USA
  • Michael Winklhofer, Prof. Dr., Institute for Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Oldenburg, Germany

Source: https://diebasis-th.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Hamburg_Declaration_2022.pdf

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