Overview

• President Trump signed an executive order on May 5, 2025, to enhance biosafety by restricting high-risk virology research, particularly gain-of-function studies.
• The order terminates U.S. federal funding for foreign gain-of-function research, explicitly targeting projects in countries like China with insufficient oversight.
• A new domestic governance framework will be developed to regulate and monitor biological research within the United States.
• The administration ties the measures to the lab-leak theory of Covid-19’s origins, which has gained traction among U.S. officials but remains debated by scientists.
• This initiative is part of a broader overhaul of U.S. science policy, including significant budget cuts and staff reductions across federal research agencies.