<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><span style="border-collapse:separate"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><span style="border-collapse:separate"><div style="">Haloo all, </div><div style=""><br></div><div style="">I must disagree with the assertion that gene engineering is "nowhere near" the level of designing viruses. Alas, that is not true, the technology is already there.</div><div style=""><br></div><div style="">For example, Dr. Shi Zhengli's lab has published many papers on multiple aspects of viral design, including for coronavirus specifically - facilitating zoonotic transfer, reusing viral capsid "shells" to create active virus, and design of SARS entry proteins. </div><div style=""><br></div><div style="">There are many papers from Zhengli's lab specifically, as well as other labs, on the design of an entry protein (I assume you mean the spike protein in the case of covid19), including identification of mutational hotspots, and which amino acids to mutate the hotspots to.</div><div style=""><br></div><div style="">Zhengli's academic papers and many others on covid19 can be perused in this pretty darn amazing repository:</div><div style=""><a rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4xstofs4tc5q4irede6uzaz3qzcdvcb2eedxgfakzwdyjnxgohq/pdfs/&sa=D&source=hangouts&ust=1587165798883000&usg=AFQjCNHoTm62EIL4Dtvyp807MzKMZG5bqA" class="gmail-Xx" tabindex="-1" dir="ltr" style="unicode-bidi:isolate;color:rgb(38,50,56);font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;font-size:13px">https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4xstofs4tc5q4irede6uzaz3qzcdvcb2eedxgfakzwdyjnxgohq/pdfs/</a> </div><div style=""><br></div><div style="">But don't only look there, there are many papers on viral engineeering. The technology is here.</div><div style=""><br></div><div style="">--Regina <br></div><div style=""><br></div><div style=""><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2020 18:28:31 -0700</span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">From: Keith Henson <</span><a href="mailto:hkeithhenson@gmail.com" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">hkeithhenson@gmail.com</a><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">></span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">To: ExI chat list <</span><a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">></span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">Subject: Re: [ExI] virus scenario</span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">Message-ID:</span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">        <</span><a href="mailto:CAPiwVB4-fWr-k_0Yf67ZFe2xtCY38c%2BMp4Us3R7CaaOvBqjn_w@mail.gmail.com" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">CAPiwVB4-fWr-k_0Yf67ZFe2xtCY38c+Mp4Us3R7CaaOvBqjn_w@mail.gmail.com</a><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">></span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"</span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><a href="mailto:robot@ultimax.com" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">robot@ultimax.com</a><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"> wrote:</span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">>> Spike's scenario doesn't explain the crossover event.</span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">>Agree.  But I have followed gene engineering for decades.  I can state</span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">>from such personal knowledge that making this virus in a lab is >beyond </span><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">the state of the art.  Not really far beyond the state of the art > </span>but it is at least 5 years out and more likely ten years.  The >showstopper would be designing the entry protein.</div><div style=""><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">>> SARS-CoV-2 is not 100% bat content.  Mostly it is -- 80%??  The >>balance, </span><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">20%??, came from some other mammal.  Pangolin (an >>Asian anteater, looks </span><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">a lot like an armadillo) is the thinking, but, </span></div><div style=""><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">>> whatever.</span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"> </div><div style=""><snip><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">>As it is, too many people being sick at the same time is starting to</span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">> have effects on the food supply.</span><font color="#000000" face="Calibri, sans-serif">  </font><br></div><div style=""><font color="#000000" face="Calibri, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style=""><font color="#000000" face="Calibri, sans-serif">Or </font><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">too many people not working at the same time....</span></div><div style=""><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div style=""><font color="#000000" face="Calibri, sans-serif">back to lurking,</font></div><div style=""><font color="#000000" face="Calibri, sans-serif">Regina</font></div></span></div></div></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>