Gain-of-function research (GOFR) refers to the serial passaging of microorganisms to increase their transmissibility, virulence, immunogenicity, and host tropism by applying selective pressure to a ...

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 ...

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 ...

Due to unanswered questions into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, both the U.S. government and scientists have called for a deeper examination into the validity of claims that a virus could ...

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 ...

Potential Risks and Benefits of Gain-of-Function Research is the summary of a two-day public symposium on Gain of Function (GOF) research. Convened in December 2014 by the National Research Council ...