EpiStack

O-37 - DEFUSE proposed introducing human-specific (furin) cleavage sites into SARS-related coronavirus spikes

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Properties8
type
observation
id
O-37
statement
The proposal planned to screen SARS-CoV spike sequences for proteolytic and potential furin cleavage sites and, 'where clear mismatches occur,' to introduce 'appropriate human-specific cleavage sites' into the viruses and test their growth in human airway (HAE) and Vero cell cultures.
link_state
linked
source
S-65 - Project DEFUSE proposal (EcoHealth Alliance to DARPA, 2018)
locator
TA1 — 'S2 Proteolytic Cleavage and Glycosylation Sites'
data_basis
quote
We will analyze all SARS-CoV S gene sequences for appropriately conserved proteolytic cleavage sites in S2 and for the presence of potential furin cleavage sites... Where clear mismatches occur, we will introduce appropriate human-specific cleavage sites and evaluate growth potential in Vero cells and HAE cultures.

The single most load-bearing documentary fact in the lab-leak institutional case: the consortium proposed, in writing, to insert human-specific/furin-type cleavage sites into SARS-related coronaviruses — the same class of feature separately debated in SARS-CoV-2’s own genome. (Quote transcribed from the scanned proposal’s degraded OCR and reconciled with the widely-circulated verbatim text; the phrase “introduce appropriate human-specific cleavage sites” is the canonical wording.)

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