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Stricter US guidelines for ‘gain-of-function’ research are on the way — maybe

A biosecurity panel met, expecting to approve recommendations, but myriad concerns complicated the proceedings.
  1. Sara Reardon
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A long-awaited report on how US health officials should regulate research involving dangerous pathogens has been approved — sort of. On 27 January, a panel of experts joined a virtual meeting of the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) expecting to vote on a set of recommendations developed by a pair of working groups. So many concerns were lodged, however, that the meeting ended with an agreement to modify the report — although without a firm plan for how to do so.

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Nature 614, 206-207 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00257-0

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 30 January 2023: An earlier version of this story stated that a study in which researchers inserted a gene from the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 into an older strain of the virus was posted online without peer review. An early-access version of it has now been published in Nature.

  • Correction 31 January 2023: An earlier version of this story located Gigi Kwik Gronvall in Washington DC. She is at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

References

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  3. Chen, D.-Y. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05697-2 (2023).

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