oct 14, 2014 - USA Lab-Made Bat Coronavirus Triggers Debate | Research Stopped

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https://www.the-scientist.com/the-nutshell/moratorium-on-gain-of-function-research-36564

Ralph Baric, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published a study on his team’s efforts to engineer a virus with the surface protein of the SHC014 coronavirus, found in horseshoe bats in China, and the backbone of one that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The hybrid virus could infect human airway cells according to the team’s results, which were published in Nature Medicine.
The results demonstrate the ability of the SHC014 surface protein to bind and infect human cells.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and Department of Health and Human Services last week announced it was launching a detailed review into so-called gain-of-function research, in which pathogens are manipulated to alter their capabilities. Now, in the face of threats like influenza, SARS, and MERS, which have killed scores in the Middle East and Asia, and a handful of biosafety lapses at federal research facilities, the USA government stopped funding for new studies aiming to give novel functions to influenza, SARS, and MERS viruses.

Soon after this incident, gain of function coronavirus research was moved to Wuhan, China with 3.7$ milion grant from Obama administration

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