Inside the Anti-GMO Movement’s Obsession With Virology Research and Lab Leaks

To be fair to the opponents of gain-of-function research, most experts agree that some extreme versions of this work are truly reckless, Moreover, as Jacobsen wrote, lab leaks have occurred with some frequency over the past few decades. An early controversy over gain-of-function research came to a head in 2011, when University of Wisconsin researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka announced that his lab had successfully modified the highly lethal H5N1 bird flu to make it airborne among ferrets.