Three years ago, federal officials at the National Institute of Health (NIH) placed a funding moratorium on lethal pathogen creation in the response to “gain of function studies” involving MERS, SARS, and Avian Influenza. These studies investigated the behavior of viruses that had been manipulated to become more virulent in the laboratory environment, something that many researchers say is necessary to preparing for deadly pandemics and bioterrorism. It seems that this December, after an unusually long review period, NIH officials headed by Dr. Francis Collins are agreeing with these researchers and lifting the ban in favor of a stringent review process.
At the time of its imposition, the moratorium halted 21 studies in progress across the US. Eventually 10 of those studies were granted exemptions. The remaining 11 studies will now be eligible for funding, once accepted by new review panels, run by the NIH. These panels, which will also accept new research proposals, will review candidate studies on a variety of criteria. Applicants for gain of function studies must show that their research is scientifically sound, conducted in a high-security laboratory, directly beneficial to mankind, and impossible to complete in a safer way.
Though many disease researchers are heartened by the news, others aren’t nearly as optimistic. Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist who directs the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard School of Public Health, said that gain of function studies “have given us some modest scientific knowledge and done almost nothing to improve our preparedness for pandemics, and yet risked creating an accidental pandemic.” Additionally, some researchers have criticized the policy for extending only to publicly funded experimentation.
Time will only tell whether the new policy will widen our virological knowledge or bring the next superbug down on our heads. Perhaps it will do neither.
-J. Cole Holderman
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