The virus’s genome is already online. You just need the right lab.
Source: www.nytimes.com
Weeeeeellll…yes and no. Smallpox is a BIIIIG genome – not far off in size to the bacterial genome famously resynthesised by Craig Venter et al., a while ago. This means it would be a huge undertaking, cost a LOT of money, and need sophisticated facilities to do it.
Not something your average cave-dwelling fanatic could do, then!
States could do it, however: a well-funded lab in even a country like North Korea could theoretically resynthesise a poxvirus – but why bother?? We have vaccines against smallpox right now; growing poxviruses and vaccinia virus in particular is a well-established biotechnology still.
SO I think this is an artificial concern, to be honest.
See on Scoop.it – Virology News
ViroBlogy 
22 October, 2014 at 16:39 |
I guess is easier to thaw a sample of human tissue containing small pox from before 1975, don´t you think?
20 November, 2014 at 12:05 |
Yup – I can’t see why anyone would try to synthesise it.
1 January, 2015 at 09:25 |
Good comment! I wonder how much material there is around like that, still?
30 March, 2015 at 16:15 |
[…] We have also made a natural species go extinct – but it won’t be missed. Like smallpox, it was completely sequenced some time ago, so we could theoretically recreate it if we ever needed to. […]