Wikipedia -WSS

Wikipedia

author：explore 2025-08-22 18:30:32 - browse：46748

If you ask a chatbot how to cause a pandemic, it will suggest the 1918 influenza virus, according to researcher Kevin Esvelt. It will even tell you where to find the gene sequences online and where to purchase the genetic components.

Esvelt is a biologist and MIT professor whose work has included altering the genes of mice to prevent the spread of Lyme disease. In a recent First Opinion essay, he wrote about how easy and inexpensive it has become to order genetic components that could be used to create harmful pathogens or toxins and how the biotech industry and government agencies must strengthen safety precautions to prevent this.

Esvelt sat down with host Pat Skerrett to chat about the amazing things genetic technology can accomplish when used correctly, as well as the dangers of such technology in the hands of someone with bad intentions.

“We’re trying to do biotech to accomplish amazing things and heal people,” Esvelt said. “You don’t want to think about the same tools being misused and, to most scientists, this doesn’t come naturally.”

Be sure to sign up for the weekly “First Opinion Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. And don’t forget to sign up for the First Opinion newsletter to read each week’s best First Opinion essays.

Newsletters

Sign up for First Opinion Podcast

Weekly alerts when a new episode drops from STAT’s First Opinion podcast

Please enter a valid email address. Privacy Policy

Previous article： As demand for Covid shots wanes, Moderna seeks its next success
Next article： Bernie Sanders is gearing up to subpoena pharma CEOs

Wikipedia

WSS

Vertex non

Why you shouldn’t ask, “What country has the best health care?”

Vertex non

Venture capital firm's plans to take over Akron hospital face hurdles

Readout Newsletter: CG Oncology IPO, Eli Lilly, Tesla, Merck

It shouldn't be easy to buy synthetic DNA to recreate a deadly virus

focus

Wikipedia

Sign up for First Opinion Podcast

Wikipedia

Duchenne breakthrough therapy leaves behind pioneering families

Study: AI not yet building 'n

How to save PrEP access — and even expand it

Google says AlphaFold 3 can map a vast universe of biomolecules

Jerome Adams on the need for new antivirals for Covid

Why Medicare shouldn’t cover every FDA

Walensky prepares to leave CDC — and Congress — behind

What nurses really want: sufficient staffing for patient care

Cancer drug shortages should be causing more outrage

Study: AI not yet building 'n

knowledge

Dairy farmers resist CDC push for PPE against bird flu virus

Wegovy leads to weight loss. Can it treat depression, too?

Why you shouldn’t ask, “What country has the best health care?”

The Affordable Care Act has saved billions in health care costs

Pancreatic cancer early detection could be helped by AI

Apple Watch's A

hotspot

focus

explore

knowledge