The new policy would impose stricter safeguards on potentially dangerous biological research and restrict funding for work conducted in countries or institutions that lack adequate biosafety oversight.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Department of Health and Human Services announced a new policy July 28 intended to end federal funding for what the agency describes as dangerous gain-of-function research, while imposing tighter controls on life sciences experiments that could threaten public health, biosecurity or national security.
Gain-of-function research can involve modifying an organism to enhance certain characteristics, including changes that may affect a pathogen’s transmissibility, severity or ability to evade existing defenses. Although some forms of such research are conducted to better understand diseases and prepare medical countermeasures, federal officials said experiments carrying serious risks should not receive taxpayer support without enforceable safeguards.
Under the policy, HHS would prohibit federal funding for dangerous gain-of-function research conducted both in the United States and overseas. It would also limit federal support for research at institutions or in countries that do not maintain sufficient biosafety protections, transparency requirements and independent oversight.
“The federal government has a duty to protect the American people—not fund research that could put them at risk,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in the department’s statement. “Today, we are ending federal support for dangerous gain-of-function research and replacing weak oversight with clear, enforceable safeguards.”
The action follows an executive order President Donald Trump issued in May 2025 directing federal agencies to stop funding gain-of-function research in countries of concern, including China and Iran, when adequate research oversight is not in place.
A White House fact sheet accompanying the order said the administration’s objective was to prevent federal money from supporting foreign research that could contribute to another pandemic. The order also called for a halt to certain U.S.-based experiments involving infectious pathogens and toxins until the government could establish a safer and more enforceable regulatory framework.
“Dangerous gain-of-function research on biological agents and pathogens has the potential to significantly endanger the lives of American citizens,” Trump wrote in the order. “If left unrestricted, its effects can include widespread mortality, an impaired public health system, disrupted American livelihoods, and diminished economic and national security.”
The administration’s decision comes amid continuing congressional scrutiny of U.S.-funded research associated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and debate over the origins of COVID-19.
In December 2024, the Republican-led House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a 520-page report summarizing findings from a two-year investigation. The committee concluded that the virus responsible for COVID-19 likely originated in a laboratory in Wuhan rather than through a natural spillover event.
The report said the National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and that EcoHealth Alliance Inc. used U.S. taxpayer funds to facilitate work conducted at the laboratory.
According to the committee, the virus possessed biological characteristics it said were not found in nature, while available data indicated that all known COVID-19 cases resulted from a single introduction into humans. The report contrasted that pattern with previous pandemics in which multiple animal-to-human spillover events were identified.
The committee also cited a January 2021 unclassified State Department fact sheet addressing activities at the Wuhan laboratory before the pandemic became publicly known.
“The U.S. government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illness,” the fact sheet stated.
Drawing from the same document, the House report said the Wuhan Institute of Virology “has a published record of conducting ‘gain-of-function’ research to engineer chimeric viruses.”
The HHS policy represents the administration’s effort to replace prior oversight standards with rules it says will be clearer, more restrictive and easier to enforce. The framework is intended to prevent federal funding from supporting experiments that could increase the danger posed by biological agents while also addressing concerns about research performed in countries with limited transparency or weak laboratory controls.
Federal officials framed the policy as a national security and public health measure rather than a prohibition on all advanced biological research. The restrictions are directed at research the government determines poses unacceptable risks because of the pathogens involved, the modifications being attempted or the oversight conditions under which the work would be conducted.
The policy also places greater responsibility on agencies and grant recipients to demonstrate that proposed research meets federal biosafety requirements before receiving taxpayer funding. Projects conducted abroad would face additional scrutiny when local institutions or governments cannot provide adequate assurances that dangerous materials and experiments will be properly monitored.
By ending support for research deemed excessively hazardous and imposing stricter standards on other life sciences work, HHS said it intends to reduce the possibility that federally funded experiments could contribute to an accidental outbreak, deliberate misuse or another large-scale public health emergency.
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