gain-of-function
Added biological ability
Gain-of-function describes research that intentionally enhances a pathogen's capabilities—making a virus more transmissible, virulent, or able to infect new hosts.
The term became prominent during debates about laboratory safety and the origins of COVID-19: gain-of-function experiments on coronaviruses.
Such research aims to anticipate natural mutations but carries obvious biosecurity risks.
Disease-causing microorganism
- virulenceCapacity to cause disease
- transmissibilityCapacity to spread
- infectivityCapacity to spread disease
- replicationAct of duplicating precisely
adaptation · antigenic · epitope · phenotype · fitness · attenuation · airborne · droplet
pathogen
Disease-causing microorganism
- virulenceCapacity to cause disease
- transmissibilityCapacity to spread
- infectivityCapacity to spread disease
replication · adaptation · antigenic · epitope · phenotype · fitness · attenuation · airborne · droplet · reassortment
gain, gains, gained, gaining, gainer, gainful, gainfully, function, functions