Dual-Use Research Debates and Public Health: Better Integration Would Do No Harm

INTRODUCTION The rapid pace of discovery in the lifesciences can have profound implications for public health, and the focus of much deliberation in recent years has been on how best to ensure that they are positive and not negative. A key focus of debate has been on dual-use research of concern (DURC), which has been defined as life-science research 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, materiel, or national security (1).” Debates such as the one that surrounded gain-of-function (GOF) research on avian influenza have led to many existential questions about contemporary life-science research, including whether or not such research should even be conducted in the first place, what viable alternative experimental approaches exist, if or how the findings should be made public, and how – or whether – such research can be governed (2–6). Responding to these questions at a policy level necessarily involve a broader sphere of actors than life scientists alone as they have potential ramifications in different sectors and for society-at-large. Often, it is the security and research communities that have been at the frontline of such debates and driving policy. The public health community tends to enter the fray at later stages, such as after the completion of “concerning” research, at which point it is asked to either facilitate discussion or comment on the potential public health risks and benefits of research (7, 8). By that stage, public health organizations risk being viewed of as a partisan supporter of dual-use research (9). In this paper, we demonstrate how the public health sector could more substantially contribute to the debate, guide policy decisions, and promote actions along all phases of the research life-cycle. Before doing so, we articulate the key aspects of the dual-use debate as they are relevant to public health.