Scientists Fight For Superbug Research As U.S. Pauses Funding
Original article from: NPR posted on October 23, 2014. By Nell Greenfieldboyce
An unusual government moratorium aimed at controversial research with high-risk viruses has halted important public health research, scientists told an advisory committee to the federal government on Wednesday.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said Friday that the federal government will, for now, not fund any new research proposals that might make three particular viruses more virulent or contagious. The three viruses are those that give rise to influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and Middle East respiratory syndrome.
The White House also said it would encourage “those currently conducting this type of work — whether federally funded or not — to voluntarily pause their research while risks and benefits are being reassessed.”
Some researchers who study these germs say they received “cease-and-desist” letters from their funder, the National Institutes of Health.
The moratorium has hit efforts to develop a small-animal model for MERS, the troubling virus that’s recently emerged in the Middle East, says Kanta Subbarao, a biologist who studies influenza, SARS, and MERS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
She notes that currently scientists have no rodent models to use for testing drugs or other treatments for MERS. Her group developed such a model for SARS by creating a form of the virus that makes mice sicker, and she wants to do the same for MERS.