The News
US President Donald Trump moved to limit controversial “gain-of-function” research that could make pathogens more dangerous.
These experiments involve taking viruses or bacteria and modifying them, sometimes to make them more transmissible or deadly, for example. The idea is to protect against future pandemics, but critics say it risks creating lethal pathogens which could then leak from a lab.
Trump’s executive order includes stiffer penalties for scientists found breaking the rules, and a ban on federal funding for gain-of-function research in countries of concern, notably China.
However, the order’s wording is vague, making it unclear whether it required an immediate pause on all such work: “Everyone is trying to work out what exactly this means,” one researcher told Science.