The Department of State, alongside the Department of Health and Human Services, released a note on the Trump administration’s ending of high-risk research, including gain-of-function research.
According to the State Department, the United States Government Policy for Stopping High-Risk Life Sciences Research fulfills President Trump’s pledge to ensure life sciences benefit American interests. “This policy stops dangerous gain-of-function research that has the potential to threaten lives, disrupt communities, strain public health systems, and undermine America’s economic and national security if not properly restricted and controlled,” the Department’s note read.
HHS explained that the policy preserves biomedical research such as vaccine development, therapeutics, and diagnostics, among other measures.
“The federal government has a duty to protect the American people—not fund research that could put them at risk,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “Today, we are ending federal support for dangerous gain-of-function research and replacing weak oversight with clear, enforceable safeguards. This policy delivers on President Trump’s commitment to put safety first while ensuring America remains the global leader in ethical, responsible, and lifesaving biomedical research.”
The government policy lists two primary areas of dangerous research: gain-of-function research and international research of concern. The former is defined as researching that “enhances a property or properties of a biological agent in ways that make it more dangerous.” The latter is given a warning stressing that any “federally funded life sciences research that is conducted outside of the United States must be carried out in compliance with U.S. oversight standards and policies and should not be conducted in foreign countries of concern or by foreign entities of concern.”
Last year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it was terminating gain-of-function research. The agency moved to “terminate funding and other support for projects, including unfunded collaborations/projects, meeting the definition of dangerous gain-of-function research conducted by foreign entities in countries of concern or foreign countries where there is not adequate oversight” and suspend “all other funding and other support for projects, including unfunded collaborations/projects, meeting the definition of dangerous gain-of-function research at least until implementation of the new policy.”
The efforts align with President Trump’s May 2025 executive order on the subject, which said that gain-of-function research “has the potential to significantly endanger the lives of American citizens.”
“If left unrestricted, its effects can include widespread mortality, an impaired public health system, disrupted American livelihoods, and diminished economic and national security. The Biden Administration allowed dangerous gain-of-function research within the United States with insufficient levels of oversight,” the order read, going on to call for the end of federal funding for “other life-science research that is occurring in countries of concern or foreign countries where there is not adequate oversight to ensure that the countries are compliant with United States oversight standards and policies and that could reasonably pose a threat to public health, public safety, and economic or national security, as determined by the heads of relevant agencies.”
