Poliovirus has been genetically modified so that it can be used in vaccines without the risk of spreading the disease.
Inactivated polio vaccine is currently made (pictured) using highly infectious strains of the virus. To guard against accidental release, the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, has called on manufacturers to switch to weakened live strains called Sabin strains, despite their tendency to mutate into infectious forms.
A team led by Philip Minor at the UK National Institute for Biological Standards and Control in Potters Bar created a genetically modified Sabin strain that, when inactivated, still elicited an immune response in rats. However, the virus did not mutate into active forms in cell lines and failed to infect macaques, so it would be unlikely to spread the disease among humans if it was accidentally released.
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Poliovirus tweaked for safer vaccines. Nature 529, 131 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/529131b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/529131b
