The Conversation

Gain‑of‑function research is more than just tweaking risky viruses – it’s a routine and essential tool in all biology research

In May 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to restrict research on viruses and pathogens called gain-of-function studies. The National Institutes of Health is now taking steps to ...
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Gain-of-function pathogen research is controversial and widespread. Can it be regulated?

Activists want it banned. The US government may soon further restrict it. And politicians won’t stop talking about it. So-called “gain-of-function” pathogen research has faced growing scrutiny ever ...
Bloomberg L.P.

Trump Signs Order Targeting Gain-of-Function Virus Research

President Donald Trump signed an executive order looking to limit federal funding for gain-of-function research that involves altering pathogens, suggesting the efforts could have been responsible for ...
STAT

The NIH ordered me to stop my ‘dangerous’ gain-of-function research. It isn’t dangerous at all

Stanley is an associate professor and Richard and Rhoda Goldman distinguished chair in the biological sciences as well as faculty director for the Alliance for Global Health and Science at the ...
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Trump’s last minute gain-of-function policy could sow researcher confusion

In 2011, two teams of scientists created an uproar after revealing they had separately mutated the H5N1 bird flu virus to spread among ferrets through the air, something it didn’t do naturally. The ...
New York Post

NIH official finally admits taxpayers funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan — after years of denials

At long last, National Institutes of Health (NIH) principal deputy director Lawrence Tabak admitted to Congress Thursday that US taxpayers funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of ...
New York Post

Pentagon asked for ‘gain of function’ research proposals years before COVID-19 pandemic, top virologist tells Congress

WASHINGTON — A War Department program requested proposals for so-called “gain of function” experiments that could make viruses more infectious nearly two full years before the COVID-19 pandemic began, ...