Recombination between coronaviruses and synthetic RNAs and biorisk implications motivated by a SARS-CoV-2 FCS origin controversy.

The urgent need for improved policy, regulation, and oversight of research with potential pandemic pathogens (PPPs) has been widely acknowledged. A 2022 article in Frontiers in Virology raises questions, reporting on a 100% sequence homology between the SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site (FCS) and the negative strand of a 2017 patented sequence. Even though Ambati and collaborators suspect a possible inadvertent or intentional cause leading to the FCS insert, the related underpinnings have not been studied from the perspective of potential biorisk policy gaps.

Rarely Recognized Antibody Diversification in Covid-19 Evolution to Counteract Advanced SARS-CoV-2 Evasion Strategies, and Implications for Prophylactic Treatment.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic underscores the importance of finding effective and safe ways to combat the virus, and to optimally understand the immune response elicited upon natural infection. This likely involves all components of the immune system, both innate and adaptive. The impetus for the rapid development of prophylactic treatment options has led to an intense focus on neutralizing antibodies (Abs), and many novel and specialized platforms have been designed to achieve that goal.

Facing the 2020 pandemic: What does cyberbiosecurity want us to know to safeguard the future?

As the entire world is under the grip of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and as many are eagerly trying to explain the origins of the virus and cause of the pandemic, it is imperative to place more attention on related potential biosafety risks. Biology and biotechnology have changed dramatically during the last ten years or so. Their reliance on digitization, automation, and their cyber-overlaps have created new vulnerabilities for unintended consequences and potentials for intended exploitation that are mostly under-appreciated.

Are paradoxes of amoeboid cognition, memristors, and memory mandating a re-conceptualization of actions and behaviors?

Background From intelligent behaviors of individual molecules and primitive organisms to those with a nervous system and brain, nature displays a fascinating collective memory across time and space. Using certain electronic circuits called memristors, it has been possible to emulate several processes of memory and learning, including a predictive form of intelligence of simple amoebas. Purpose What is the core of such intelligent performances? Although memristors are able to effectively describe puzzling biologic behaviors, recent results challenge their very existence altogether.

On DNA Signatures, Their Dual-Use Potential for GMO Counterfeiting, and a Cyber-Based Security Solution.

This study investigates the role and functionality of special nucleotide sequences ("DNA signatures") to detect the presence of an organism and to distinguish it from all others. After highlighting vulnerabilities of the prevalent DNA signature paradigm for the identification of agricultural genetically modified (GM) organisms it will be argued that these so-called signatures really are no signatures at all - when compared to the notion of traditional (handwritten) signatures and their generalizations in the modern (digital) world. It is suggested that a recent contamination event of an unauthorized GM strain (Paracchini et al.

Are Market GM Plants an Unrecognized Platform for Bioterrorism and Biocrime?

This article discusses a previously unrecognized avenue for bioterrorism and biocrime. It is suggested that new gene editing technologies may have the potential to create plants that are genetically modified in harmful ways, either in terms of their effect on the plant itself or in terms of harming those who would consume foods produced by that plant. While several risk scenarios involving GMOs-such as antibiotic resistant pathogens, synthetic biology, or mixing of non-GMO seeds with GMO seeds-have previously have been recognized, the new vulnerability is rooted in a different paradigm-that of clandestinely manipulating GMOs to create damage.

A covert authentication and security solution for GMOs.

Background: Proliferation and expansion of security risks necessitates new measures to ensure authenticity and validation of GMOs. Watermarking and other cryptographic methods are available which conceal and recover the original signature, but in the process reveal the authentication information. In many scenarios watermarking and standard cryptographic methods are necessary but not sufficient and new, more advanced, cryptographic protocols are necessary.