White House halts funding for flu virus experiments

CHICAGO -- The White House has temporarily stopped funding research into the flu and other pathogens in which scientists make them more transmissible or more deadly.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced the government is assessing the potential risks and benefits of so-called "gain-of-function" studies.

The government said it will pause funding for any new studies that include gain-of-function experiments involving flu, SARS and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) viruses. It is asking that those conducting this type of work, federally funded or not, to "voluntarily pause" their research while risks and benefits are being reassessed.

Studies involving naturally occurring flu, MERS and SARS viruses are unaffected "unless there is a reasonable expectation that these tests would increase transmissibility or pathogenicity," the statement said.

Experts criticized the government last month for failing to weigh in on gain-of-function research when it issued new guidelines on so-called dual-use research of concern, pathogens that could be used both for legitimate purposes and for biowarfare or bioterrorism.

Under those guidelines, universities are in charge of policing such research. Universities that fail to keep the government informed could lose funding.

In its latest step, the White House is focusing specifically on "gain of function" studies, the most worrisome subset of dual-use research.

Such studies sparked international debate in late 2011 when the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity asked the journals Nature and Science to withhold details on mutated strains of the bird flu virus for fear the studies could be used by bioterrorists. -- Reuters