As the H5N1 bird flu virus steamrolls its way across the globe — killing wild animals, commercial livestock and even some people — scientists and health officials fear we're on the precipice of ...

In 2011, two teams of scientists created an uproar after revealing they had separately mutated the H5N1 bird flu virus to spread among ferrets through the air, something it didn’t do naturally. The ...

Gain-of-function experiments can help researchers get ahead of viruses naturally gaining the ability to infect people in the wild. But they're also used for many other areas of study within biology.

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 ...

Scientists have long debated the merits and risks of tinkering with viruses and bacteria, which the president claims caused the coronavirus pandemic. By Carl Zimmer and Emily Anthes President Trump ...

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday that seeks to limit federal funding for gain-of-function research, which is used to study how pathogens can become more harmful by causing ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. The National Animal Disease Center research facility in Ames, Iowa, tests milk samples amid an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu among ...