House Republicans press for new guardrails on ‘gain-of-function’ research by NIH
WASHINGTON — Republican leaders of a prominent committee overseeing federal health agencies are pushing to crack down on certain viral pathogen research with a new oversight panel.
GOP staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee recommended in a report Tuesday that the federal government “remove final review and approval” for so-called gain-of-function research from the National Institutes of Health and its infectious disease arm. The authority over these types of studies — which involve making a virus more transmissible in a lab to study its spread and are seen by some as risky — would go to a “wholly independent” entity that would publish reports of its decisions.
