Inside STAT: A debate over genetic sequences and national rights threatens to inhibit research

(ILLUSTRATION: ALEX HOGAN/STAT; PHOTO: CDC)

Some infectious disease scientists are growing increasingly worried about an international treaty that could — depending on how negotiations go — make disease surveillance and international research collaborations difficult. Specifically, they’re concerned about an agreement known as the Nagoya Protocol, which is part of an international treaty aimed at protecting each country’s control over its own biological resources. Since the protocol came into force in October 2014, there's been a fierce debate about whether the genetic sequences of pathogens — the DNA that characterizes a circulating flu bug or an isolated Ebola virus — fall under that agreement. STAT's Helen Branswell has the story here.