The United States pauses new funding for certain gain-of-function studies
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced a pause on new federal funding for gain-of-function studies expected to enhance the pathogenicity or transmissibility of influenza, MERS or SARS viruses, pending a deliberative process.
The pause covered new funding for studies reasonably anticipated to confer attributes to influenza, MERS or SARS viruses such that the virus would have enhanced pathogenicity or transmissibility in mammals by the respiratory route. The deliberative process that followed produced the framework of December 2017.
Sources
- NIH Office of Science Policy: Gain of Function Research (the pause of October 16-17, 2014 and what followed)official record
- Congressional Research Service, IF12021: Global Pandemics: Gain-of-Function Research of Concernreport
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