Scientists revive 'zombie virus' frozen under permafrost for 48,500 years
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Loading... - Martisse Bertin
- 23 Mar 2023
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Scientists are concerned after a 'zombie virus' that spent 48,500 years frozen in permafrost in Siberia was able to be revived.
French scientist Jean-Michel Claverie tested earth samples taken from permafrost to see whether any viral particles it contained were still infectious.
The Emeritus professor of medicine and genomics at the Aix-Marseille University School of Medicine in Marseille has been in search of what he describes as “zombie viruses” to better understand the risks posed.
In 2014, he managed to revive a virus that he and his team isolated from the permafrost, making it infectious for the first time in 30,000 years by inserting it into cultured cells.
For safety, he’d chosen to study a virus that could only target single-celled amoebas, not animals or humans.
He repeated the feat in 2015, isolating a different virus type that also targeted amoebas. Read More…
