---
type: Topic
title: Gain-of-function research
description: "Gain-of-function experiments, dual-use research of concern and the P3CO review framework."
tags:
  - topic
  - covid-19
document_count: 225
sources:
  - { id: baric_ti, resource: /sources/baric-ti.md, title: Baric Transcribed Interview (Redacted), author: "process:senate-hsgac-release", last_modified: 2026-07-23 }
  - { id: daszak_cbp, resource: /sources/daszak-cbp.md, title: Daszak CBP Package, author: "process:senate-hsgac-release", last_modified: 2026-07-17 }
  - { id: diary_prequel, resource: /sources/diary-prequel.md, title: Diary Prequel Package, author: "process:senate-hsgac-release", last_modified: 2026-07-27 }
  - { id: fauci_diary, resource: /sources/fauci-diary.md, title: Tony's Diary Package, author: "process:senate-hsgac-release", last_modified: 2026-07-24 }
  - { id: fauci_intel, resource: /sources/fauci-intel.md, title: Fauci Intelligence Community Release, author: "process:senate-hsgac-release", last_modified: 2026-06-11 }
  - { id: gates, resource: /sources/gates.md, title: Gates Package, author: "process:senate-hsgac-release", last_modified: 2026-07-31 }
  - { id: letter_dni, resource: /sources/letter-dni.md, title: Chairman Paul Letter to DNI Gabbard, author: "process:senate-hsgac-release", last_modified: 2025-10-30 }
  - { id: reading_room, resource: /sources/reading-room.md, title: Reading Room Production, author: "process:senate-hsgac-release" }
  - { id: slack_pm, resource: /sources/slack-pm.md, title: Slack / Private Message Drop, author: "process:senate-hsgac-release" }
generated: { by: randpaul-corpus-pipeline/1.0, at: "2026-08-01T12:42:27Z" }
status: stable
---

Gain-of-function experiments, dual-use research of concern and the P3CO review framework.

Tagged on **225** documents.

# Principal voices

* [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) - 52 documents
* [Robert F. Garry](/people/robert-f-garry.md) - 31 documents
* [Ashley Sanders](/people/ashley-sanders.md) - 20 documents
* [Erik Stemmy](/people/erik-stemmy.md) - 20 documents
* [Ralph S. Baric](/people/ralph-s-baric.md) - 18 documents
* [Christina Salazar](/people/christina-salazar.md) - 15 documents
* [Sara Selgrade](/people/sara-selgrade.md) - 14 documents
* [Chase Crawford](/people/chase-crawford.md) - 6 documents
* [Kristian G. Andersen](/people/kristian-g-andersen.md) - 6 documents
* [Edward C. Holmes](/people/edward-c-holmes.md) - 4 documents
* [Andrew Rambaut](/people/andrew-rambaut.md) - 3 documents
* [Carole Heilman](/people/carole-heilman.md) - 1 documents

# Statement timeline

Attributed statements in chronological order. Each is quoted verbatim and cited to its page.

* **2001-12-12** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "At the time there was the beginning of a moratorium by President Reagan and later Bush on the use of fetal tissue for transplantation into humans." [^diary_prequel]
* **2002-07-16** — [Carole Heilman](/people/carole-heilman.md) (asserts): "I write this letter in the spirit of moving forward and with an understanding of how the recent events related to the H5N1 influenza manuscript review informs us on why the USG-NSABB process for evaluating DURC issues must fundamentally change to both…" [^reading_room]
* **2002-07-16** — [Carole Heilman](/people/carole-heilman.md) (asserts): "I also believe that this same approach in the future will mean all of us, including life science researchers, journal editors and government policy makers, will just continue to "kick the can down the road" without coming to grips with the very difficult…" [^reading_room]
* **2011-11-21** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "I found out through painful probing that recommendations from NSABB  guidelines  USG policy should have been in place years ago to deal with the upstream (prior to the start of experiments) and downstream (progress reports and communication of results)…" [^diary_prequel]
* **2011-11-21** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (instructs): "Let me be clear, I believe that we need to now once and for all get the process going of a SOP for evaluating dual use research of concern (DURC) before the experiments are performed to evaluate the risk/benefit of even doing the experiments and to…" [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-01-16** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (acknowledges): "The next morning he called me and said that they had agreed to call a moratorium for 60 days and see what the Geneva meeting brings." [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-03-29** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (instructs): "Also, on the first day of the meeting (March 29), the USG (mainly NSS) came out with the official DURC Policy that guides how we should approach DURC." [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-05-01** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "At the meeting, Richard Roberts (1993 Nobel Laureate and known Gadfly) came to the microphone and said that many virologists who disagree with Francis Collins and me about doing DURC are afraid to speak up because they fear retribution and will not get their…" [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-05-16** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "They are proposing that the USG create an Interagency Committee with final authoritative power to decide what DURC experiments can and cannot be done." [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-07-20** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "White House, including the POTUS is concerned about a misleading story by Nell Greenfield ll@einstein.yu.edu] 29 PM Boyce of NPR that said that I was going to expedite the lifting of the moratorium at the NYC meeting and the White House is worried that…" [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-07-20** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "Bottom line is that I told Heidi that I was going to recommend to the CEIRS scientists NOT to lift the moratorium." [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-07-20** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "I suggested she tell the WH staff and the POTUS not to worry and that I will not sanction lifting the moratorium, Also on July 26, Pres." [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-07-31** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "They still do not "get it' and think with all the public furor that they can just go on and do these DURC experiment without full public by-in and comment." [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-09-08** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "Over the past few days that has been continued activity concerning the dual use research of concern issue particularly regarding highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus." [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-09-08** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "We have a major meeting coming up in December, 2012 to discuss the moratorium on H5N1 research." [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-09-25** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "Discussed the issues around DURC and how we are going to address the voluntary (on the part of the scientists) moratorium on gain-of-function for transmissibility in mammals research on highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza." [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-09-25** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "These principles could then serve as the basis for guidelines for DURC that go well beyond H5N1." [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-09-25** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "I have written a commentary to appear soon in mBio (online Journal of the ASM) that asks for keeping the moratorium on H5N1 gain-of-function until the abovementioned December meeting." [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-12-17** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "December 17, 2012 - We had an "international consultation" on the problem of gain of function research on H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) (see above discussions)." [^diary_prequel]
* **2012-12-17** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (instructs): "We will now finalize the draft of "Framework" for addressing the issue of what grants and contracts we should or should not fund that relate to a gain of function regarding respiratory transmissibility in mammals of the HPAI H5N1 influenza." [^diary_prequel]
* **2013-01-23** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "Jan. 23, 2013 - The "60 day moratorium" on gain-of-function research on respiratory transmission of HPAI H5N1 influenza in mammals has been lifted by the scientists who originally signed to moratorium." [^diary_prequel]
* **2013-01-23** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "The nay-sayers who feel this research should not be done at all (David Relman, John Roberts (Nobel Prize winning ass-hole) or should not be published (Mike Osterholm) are still out there bad-mouthing the decision to lift the moratorium." [^diary_prequel]
* **2014-07-16** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "They have been consistently against gain-of-function research, especially on influenza." [^diary_prequel]
* **2014-07-16** — [Anthony S. Fauci](/people/anthony-s-fauci.md) (asserts): "I have suggested to Francis and he agrees that we call a temporary moratorium on all gain of function research on influenza and the MERS virus involving increasing pathogenesis and increasing transmissibility by the respiratory route." [^diary_prequel]
* **2020-05-11** — [Edward C. Holmes](/people/edward-c-holmes.md) (denies): "On the debit side I was just sent another (long) piece of conspiracy theory BS: https://medium.com/@yurideigin/labmade-cov2-genealogy-through-the-lens-of-gain-of-function-research-f96dd7413748" [^slack_pm]

# Matching terms

High-confidence: `gain of function`, `gain-of-function`, `gof research`, `durc`, `p3co`, `dual use research`, `enhanced potential pandemic pathogen`, `eppp`, `moratorium`

Supporting: `gof`, `dual-use`, `risky research`, `pathogen research`, `biosafety review`

# Sources

[^baric_ti]: [baric_ti](/sources/baric-ti.md)
[^daszak_cbp]: [daszak_cbp](/sources/daszak-cbp.md)
[^diary_prequel]: [diary_prequel](/sources/diary-prequel.md)
[^fauci_diary]: [fauci_diary](/sources/fauci-diary.md)
[^fauci_intel]: [fauci_intel](/sources/fauci-intel.md)
[^gates]: [gates](/sources/gates.md)
[^letter_dni]: [letter_dni](/sources/letter-dni.md)
[^reading_room]: [reading_room](/sources/reading-room.md)
[^slack_pm]: [slack_pm](/sources/slack-pm.md)