Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Here Are Some Hoops

The US National Institutes of Health has outlined how it will be handling restrictions on fetal tissue research going forward, ScienceInsider reports. It notes the NIH will still fund some grants that rely on fetal tissue work, but that applicants will have to fill out extra paperwork and go through an ethics review.

In June, the Trump Administration announced that it would be limiting federal funding for fetal tissue research by ending intramural research at NIH using such tissue and limiting extramural research the agency funds that uses fetal tissue.

In a new announcement, NIH says applications submitted on or after September 25, 2019 that plan to use fetal tissue will have to, as part of their application, justify their use of fetal tissue, explain why other approaches cannot be used, and detail how the tissue will be obtained. Projects that fall in a fundable scoring range will then undergo a review by an ethics board. Some grants, such as training grants, are not allowed to include fetal tissue research, it notes.

This approach, researchers tell ScienceInsider, will allow the Trump Administration to curtail fetal tissue research while being able to say that it is still allowed. "With these rules, it's not impossible" to conduct fetal tissue research with NIH support, the University of California, San Diego's Lawrence Goldstein, says at ScienceInsider, "but it's going to be very problematic."

The Scan

Genes Linked to White-Tailed Jackrabbits' Winter Coat Color Change

Climate change, the researchers noted in Science, may lead to camouflage mismatch and increase predation of white-tailed jackrabbits.

Adenine Base Editor Targets SCID Mutation in New Study

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, report in Cell that adenine base editing was able to produce functional T lymphocytes in a model of severe combined immune deficiency.

Researchers Find Gene Affecting Alkaline Sensitivity in Plants

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science have found a locus affecting alkaline-salinity sensitivity, which could aid in efforts to improve crop productivity, as they report in Science.

International Team Proposes Checklist for Returning Genomic Research Results

Researchers in the European Journal of Human Genetics present a checklist to guide the return of genomic research results to study participants.