Risky mutant virus research can once again receive government funding

The National Institutes of Health are lifting the funding ban on risky experiments that could make viruses like the flu, MERS, or SARS more harmful or contagious, STAT News reports. Grants that propose mutating viruses to make them more dangerous will go through an extra layer of review before the final funding decision.

These controversial experiments are called “gain-of-function” experiments, and their risks and benefits are fiercely debated. On the one hand, tweaking a virus to make it more contagious might help scientists understand what lets a virus like bird flu, for example, make the jump from infecting birds to spreading among people. But if one of these enhanced viruses were to infect the general public, they could cause a...

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