Morning Briefing

"A senior Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives is asking more questions about how the U.S. government reviewed two controversial H5N1 avian influenza studies, and how it wrote a new policy for reviewing taxpayer-funded studies that might be used for good and evil," ScienceInsider reports. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) on Monday "sent a letter [.pdf] to Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), asking him to clarify how the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) reached its recent decision to recommend publication of the two studies after recommending against publication late last year," the news service writes, noting, "The letter also asks for more information on which government officials were involved" in the new policy regarding research that might be "dual use research of concern" (DURC).