DGoF Frequently Asked Questions
DGoF is life sciences research that, based on current understanding, can be reasonably anticipated to provide knowledge, information, products, or technologies that could be directly misapplied to pose a significant threat with broad potential consequences to public health and safety, agricultural crops and other plants, animals, the environment, material, or national security.
Avian influenza virus (highly pathogenic), Bacillus anthracis, Botulinum neurotoxin (in any quantity), Burkholderia mallei, Burkholderia pseudomallei, Ebola virus, Foot-and-mouth disease virus, Francisella tularensis, Marburg virus, Reconstructed 1918 influenza virus, Rinderpest virus, Toxin-producing strains of Clostridium botulinum, Variola major virus, Variola minor virus, Yersinia pestis
Strains of above considered to be ‘attenuated’ and appearing on the Select Agents and Toxins Exclusions List are not subject to this policy , unless the research in question proposes any manipulation that restores or enhances its virulence or toxic activity.
Experiments of Concern Use of Agents and Toxins subject to this policy in research that involves:
- Enhances the harmful consequences of the agent or toxin
- Disrupts immunity or the effectiveness of an immunization against the agent or toxin without clinical and/or agricultural justification
- Confers to the agent or toxin resistance to clinically and/or agriculturally useful prophylactic or therapeutic interventions against that agent or toxin or facilitates their ability to evade detection methodologies
- Increases the stability, transmissibility, or the ability to disseminate the agent or toxin
- Alters the host range or tropism of the agent or toxin
- Enhances the susceptibility of a host population to the agent or toxin or
- Generates or reconstitutes an eradicated or extinct agent or toxin subject to this policy
Life Science Research is the study of living organisms (e.g., microbes, human beings, animals, and plants) and their products, including all disciplines and methodologies of biology such as aerobiology, agricultural science, plant science, animal science, bioinformatics, genomics, proteomics, microbiology, synthetic biology, virology, molecular biology, environmental science, public health, modeling, engineering of living systems, and all applications of the biological sciences. The term is meant to encompass the diverse approaches to understanding life at the level of ecosystems, populations, organisms, organs, tissues, cells, and molecules.