NIH terminates risky ‘gain of function’ research ‘effective immediately’

Published June 19, 2025 10:49am ET



The National Institutes of Health will terminate all funding for grants involving risky gain-of-function research and give researchers until the end of June to say whether their grants comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order regulating the dangerous type of experimentation that some have blamed for the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Scientists receiving funding from the NIH received notice on Wednesday that, following Trump’s executive order from last month, the biomedical research agency will terminate all funding for gain-of-function research “effective immediately.”

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