Owen Cotton-Barratt was recently invited to a high-level strategy meeting on ‘gain-of-function’ research in virology in which he participated this Monday, hosted in Washington, DC, under the Chatham House Rule.
The strategy meeting was designed to inform the US government response to gain-of-function research – in which viruses are engineered to have increased pathogenicity or transmissibility – and how to balance the risks and benefits of this research. Our contribution built on our work in biosafety policy, including our proposal for clarifying and targeting biosafety liability.