Scientists Win in US Midterm Elections
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NEWS IN FOCUS human DNA samples or share genetic data. and shared, mainly to protect people’s privacy is reasonable for governments to require Permission is also required to publish these and ensure that samples are gathered with approval to share genetic information, but data in international journals. informed consent. China’s rules are also meant that “if the process of applying for permission The ministry says genomics giant BGI in to ensure that the country reaps some of the is onerous or time consuming, this will have a Shenzhen and Shanghai’s Huashan Hospital profits from patented discoveries. detrimental effect on data sharing”. were also caught breaking the regulations, after But scientists say that complying with the If China continues to enforce its regulations, they put genetic information online without rules is creating obstacles. An international genetics research in the country could become approval. The data were part of a large interna- collaboration investigating genetic samples isolated from international groups, says tional study on the genetics of depression, which from more than 140,000 pregnant Chinese Arcadi Navarro, a geneticist at Pompeu Fabra was published in Nature in 2015 (CONVERGE women had to send a data-analysis expert to University in Barcelona, Spain. consortium. Nature 523, 588–591; 2015). The China because the data could not leave the A spokesperson for Cell says that the journal paper was based on anonymized sequence data country, says group requires that the data behind publications be from more than 10,000 Chinese women, which “If applying for member Anders made available, but its policy acknowledges the BGI acknowledges it did not have permission to permission is Albrechtsen, a geneti- need to respect the regulations and guidelines publish in the paper’s supplementary material. cist at the University of review boards and national bodies, as well as A spokesperson for the company says it has onerous or of Copenhagen. laws on patient privacy and personal data. destroyed the data, as requested by the ministry. time-consuming, The group — China’s science ministry did not respond to They say the company has also requested Nature this will have which included Nature’s questions about whether its restric- remove the article from its website. It remains a detrimental researchers from tions impede research. online. A spokesperson for Nature would not effect.” BGI — did not try to In its announcement, the ministry did say comment on the matter. (Nature’s news team get approval to pub- that, as punishment for their breaches, BGI, is editorially independent of its journal team.) lish the anonymized genetic data. Instead, in a AstraZeneca and Huashan Hospital had been Scientists and policy experts are worried paper published in Cell in October, it included banned from participating in international col- that the government crackdown might deter a disclaimer saying that the authors will provide laborations that use human genetic resources researchers from sharing genetic data collected only summary statistics to other researchers until they passed a data-privacy examination. in China. “At a time when transparency, open (S. Liu et al. Cell 175, 347–359; 2018). The BGI says it passed this in 2017. AstraZeneca access and sharing are high priorities, enforc- president of BGI Research, Xu Xun, says the says it is working towards its reassessment now. ing the 1998 rules obviously seems to be going team feared that it would have taken too much Nature’s attempts to contact the hospital were in the opposite direction,” says Nicholas time and effort to get permission to share the unsuccessful. Steneck, who studies research integrity at the raw sequence data. He also thinks that sharing Both BGI and AstraZeneca say that they University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. population-level statistics is sufficient. accept the government’s penalties and support Many countries control how their citizens’ Geneticist Paul Flicek of the Wellcome the country’s attempts to protect the genetic genetic material and data can be collected Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK, thinks it resources of its citizens. ■ POLITICS Scientists win in US midterm elections Trump administration’s controversial science and environment policies could come under extra scrutiny as Democrats gain in Congress. BY JANE J. LEE, AMY MAXMEN, JEREMY to the Department of Health and Human of Congress with a science PhD, is excited REHM & JEFF TOLLEFSON Services, and clean-energy entrepreneur Sean about wins at the state and local levels by can- Casten, who has degrees in engineering and didates with backgrounds in science, technol- he results of the political experiment biochemistry. ogy, engineering or medicine (STEM). “We’ll are in. At least 12 candidates with The four — all Democrats — are among have a much deeper bench among STEM can- backgrounds in science, technology, roughly 50 candidates with science back- didates in future races for Congress,” he says. Tengineering or medicine were elected to the grounds who ran for the House in 2018, The advocacy group 314 Action, which US House of Representatives on 6 November sparked in part by opposition to President sprang up after the 2016 election to help sci- — including several who had never before run Donald Trump. Fewer than half of these nov- entists run for office, says that 8 of the 22 can- for political office. ice politicians made it past the primaries to the didates it endorsed for the House or Senate They include Elaine Luria, a US Navy general election, but many science advocates ultimately won. The group in Washington DC veteran and nuclear engineer in Virginia, and are already looking to the next campaign cycle. also backed about 50 candidates in state races, Chrissy Houlahan, a former business execu- “I’m feeling good,” says Representative Bill and 31 won. tive with a degree in engineering, in Pennsyl- Foster (Democrat, Illinois), a physicist who has “It’s certaintly exceeded our expectations vania. Illinois saw wins by registered nurse pushed to increase the number of scientists in of what we would be able to do this year,” Lauren Underwood, a former senior adviser elected office. Foster, the only current member says Shaughnessy Naughton, 314 Action’s 302 | NATURE | VOL 563 | 15 NOVEMBER 2018©2018 Spri nger Nature Li mited. All ri ghts reserved. ©2018 Spri nger Nature Li mited. All ri ghts reserved. president. She says that the group spent US$2 million during this election cycle on items such as ads and voter-registration drives, and contributed another $250,000 to various candidates’ campaigns. That wave of interest is “indicative of people’s desire to get involved, and a recognition that it’s no longer okay to sit on the sidelines”, says TOM WILLIAMS/CQ ROLL CALL/GETTY TOM Benjamin Corb, director of public affairs at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molec- ular Biology in Rockville, Maryland. The victories for science candidates came as Democrats regained a majority of seats in the House, taking the chamber back from Repub- licans — who still control the Senate and the White House. Recapturing the House is “no small feat”, says Elizabeth Gore, senior vice- president for political affairs at the Environmen- tal Defense Fund, an advocacy group in New York City. “It is going to change the dialogue in Washington, and will certainly change the Eddie Bernice Johnson (left) is in line to become the next leader of the House science committee. dynamic around science and the environment.” interest in science who will exit Congress at the the Trump administration’s policies. Gore says A CHANGING CLIMATE end of year. Voters rejected a bid for re-election that this is likely to translate into congressional One of the most dramatic transitions will by Representative John Culberson of Texas, a hearings that probe the administration’s efforts involve the House Committee on Science, space enthusiast who leads the House spend- to roll back a variety of climate and environ- Space and Technology. Representative Eddie ing panel that oversees NASA, the National mental regulations, and explore whether they Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat and vocal Science Foundation and the National Oceanic are justified by the available science. critic of the Trump administration, is likely and Atmospheric Administration. Culberson’s “Some of the oversight that we will see in to take the helm from retiring Representative stalwart support for a NASA mission to Jupiter’s a Democratic House will be focused on re- Lamar Smith (Republican, Texas). As chair, moon Europa became a campaign issue after his establishing scientific integrity and highlight- Smith has repeatedly questioned the science opponent accused him of favouring pet projects ing the failure of the Trump administration to behind climate change, sought to pare back the and neglecting local issues in his district near use scientifically based information for policy- National Science Foundation’s research portfo- Houston. making,” Gore adds. lio and launched dozens of probes into alleged Culberson is “probably the strongest sup- Others worry that with Democrats taking the wrongdoing by individual scientists and US porter of planetary science, maybe in history”, House and Republicans solidifying their major- government science agencies. says Casey Dreier, senior policy adviser at the ity in the Senate, political gridlock will worsen By contrast, Johnson released a list of policy Planetary Society in Pasadena, California. “It in the coming years. “The polarization in the priorities on 6 November that includes fighting was so neat to see someone in Congress who Congress has increased,” says Robert Stavins, an climate change — “starting with acknowledg- had a personal passion for the search for extra- environmental economist at Harvard Univer- ing it is real” — and making the science panel terrestrial life.” sity in Boston, Massachusetts. “What was left of “a place where science is respected”.