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Policy's Effect

A Food and Drug Administration official says a Trump Administration policy on hiring foreign scientists is affecting the agency's ability to attract needed talent, according to Stat News.

It adds that FDA implemented a policy about a year ago that limits it to offering employment to individuals who have lived in the US for three of the past five years. "[The policy] definitely has created an additional challenge, I think, for us," says Melanie Keller, the acting associate commissioner for scientific and clinical recruitment at FDA, according Stat News, noting that "the US just doesn't graduate the number that we need to fill our vacancies."

Stat News adds that FDA has had trouble filling posts and retaining employees, with some spots taking more than a year to fill and with some employees wooed away by higher salaries offered elsewhere.

However, Stat News adds that an FDA spokesperson, Tara Rabin, later said the policy isn't a "challenge" but "something it needs to "navigate … to attract our talent."

The Scan

Hormone-Based Gene Therapy to Sterilize Domestic Cat

A new paper in Nature Communication suggests that gene therapy could be a safer alternative to spaying domestic cats.

Active Lifestyle Linked to Type 2 Diabetes Prevention in People at High Genetic Risk

A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that an active lifestyle goes a long way in type 2 diabetes prevention.

Beneficial, Harmful Effects of Introgression Between Wild and Domesticated European Grapes

A paper in PNAS shows that European wild grapevines were an important resource for improving the flavor of cultivated wine grapes.

Genetic Ancestry of South America's Indigenous Mapuche Traced

Researchers in Current Biology analyzed genome-wide data from more than five dozen Mapuche individuals to better understand their genetic history.