After all the controversy over the past few years about gain-of-function research on viruses, especially the Covid-19 virus, I thought this kind of work was on hold, at least in the U.S. Indeed, the ...

No country in the world has done more controversial virus-tinkering research than America. A first-of-its-kind study analyzed 'gain-of-function' experiments - which involve making pathogens more ...

Gain-of-function experiments can help researchers get ahead of viruses naturally gaining the ability to infect people in the wild. But they're also used for many other areas of study within biology.

The National Institutes of Health is now examining whether experiments performed at Boston University should have triggered a federal review, the agency says, after scientists at the school tested ...

On May 5, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the seemingly benign title, “Improving the Safety and Security of Biological Research.” A more accurate title would have been, ...

Last year, in July, Reine Protacio’s experiments suddenly stopped working. Every scientist encounters baffling results from time to time; you chalk it up to error, repeat the experiment, and hope for ...