Why is gain-of-function research is a thing in virology?

Question

The entire concept is alarming on the surface. The risks seem so profound you’d expect that the benefits would be pretty substantial. But for all the discussion of gain-of-function research that I’ve seen, I haven’t seen an explanation for what it is valuable, let alone what might make it valuable enough to offset the risks…

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Answer 1

Viruses are going to evolve to become more infectious and some of those are going to be more deadly. Thats just how evolution works, and there is no stopping that. If you want to be prepared you need to study how viruses evolve to become more deadly and infectious. The only way to do that is gain of function research. Otherwise we will always being playing catch up against the viruses.