Abstract
A long-awaited federal policy on oversight of dual-use research in the life sciences was issued on March 29 on a somewhat obscure government website (oba.od.nih.gov). The policy comes in the midst of controversy over the conduct and publication of two recent H5N1 avian flu experiments. The policy document was quickly followed by a statement from the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) citing that same policy for its new recommendation to publish—in a revised form—H5N1 avian flu research that involved key mutations of the virus. Previously, the federal biosecurity advisory board recommended that only heavily redacted forms of the research be published, citing dual-use and biosecurity concerns because the work adapted the virus to mammals and rendered it aerosol-transmissible ( C&EN, Feb. 6, page 6). “The data described in the revised manuscripts do not appear to provide information that would immediately enable misuse of the research in ways that ...
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