GCBR Organization Updates - December 2023
Updates from 1Day Sooner, CLTR, Concentric, CSR, Effective Giving, IFP, CHS, NTI | bio, Open Philanthropy, SecureBio, and UNIDIR
Welcome to our second quarterly newsletter of updates from organizations working to reduce global catastrophic biological risks (GCBRs).
We hope to improve transparency, facilitate collaboration, and otherwise accelerate progress in our community. For this edition, we’ve included 11 organizations that we believe are doing impactful work to reduce GCBRs, including two new organizations: UNIDIR and Concentric by Ginkgo Bioworks.
If you have any feedback, you can use this brief form or email Tessa at hello@tessa.fyi. A special thanks to Aron Lajko for his help with Airtable.
UNIDIR
The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) is an autonomous institution within the United Nations that conducts independent research on pressing global challenges related to disarmament, arms control and international security.
UNIDIR and VERTIC have launched the BWC National Implementation Measures Database, a searchable, publicly accessible database of information on national implementation measures undertaken by all States Parties to the BWC.
The official launch event, held 15 August 2023, can be viewed here.
The database is designed to strengthen BWC implementation by building an understanding of what has been done and allowing stakeholders to better understand different approaches to national implementation.
For more information, reach out to Ms. Clarisse Bertherat (clarisse.bertherat@un.org).
UNIDIR has undertaken a number of activities related to BWC verification, including:
The publication of Verifying the BWC: A Primer.
In-person and virtual events around BWC meetings, as well as presentations and bilateral briefings with BWC States Parties, such as the 29 September Briefing on Verification of the Biological Weapons Convention and a panel on BWC verification during the UNODA-UNIDIR-WHO biorisks conference.
SecureBio
SecureBio is a nonprofit research organization working on new technologies and policy proposals to delay, detect, and defend against catastrophic pandemics.
The Nucleic Acid Observatory team has begun an experiment collecting wastewater samples from a major US airport and one of the nation's largest wastewater treatment plants. The team has also published a report on pathogen abundance as a function of disease prevalence.
The Far-UVC group has published its paper on the safety of germicidal light.
A newly formed AI research group led by Dr Anjali Gopal has released a pre-print on the biorisks associated with model weight proliferation of Large Language Models, which was covered in major news outlets.
Prof Kevin Esvelt spoke about biorisks on the 80,000 Hours podcast.
SecureBio welcomed the news that the US government has canceled DeepVZN, a virus identification program.
Open Philanthropy, Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness team
Open Philanthropy’s Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness team supports efforts to strengthen disease surveillance, the governance of dual-use research, policy development, and other activities that could reduce the threat of a major global disruption.
Awarded a three-year grant in support of the World Health Organization’s work on governing dual-use research and using life sciences research responsibly.
Ran a hiring round for several roles, including roles in operations, research, and grantmaking (applications now closed).
Began working with Synonym Bio, a fermentation engineering consultancy, and ALLFED, a non-profit focused on food supply during disasters, to investigate scale-up of industrial food production in the event of severe disruption to agriculture.
Our Biosecurity Scholarships program has been folded into a new program, the career development and transition funding program, which aims to provide support – in the form of funding for graduate study, unpaid internships, self-study, career transition and exploration periods, and other activities relevant to building career capital – for individuals at any career stage who want to pursue careers that could help to reduce global catastrophic risks or otherwise improve the long-term future.
NTI | bio
NTI Global Biological Policy and Programs (NTI | bio) works to build international capacity to prevent catastrophic biological events. We advance this work by strengthening biotechnology governance and biosecurity internationally; bolstering international capabilities to prevent bioweapons development and use by states; driving progress in advancing global health security capacity; and developing the next generation of biosecurity experts.
Vice President Dr. Jaime Yassif testified for the October 18th hearing “Strengthening Biosafety and Biosecurity Standards: Protecting Against Future Pandemics” convened by the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
We published a new report, “Convergence of AI and the Life Sciences: Safeguarding Technology, Rethinking Governance, and Preventing Catastrophe” on October 31st as part of AI Fringe and on the margins of the UK government’s AI Safety Summit. The report helped inform and was referenced in the UK AI Safety Summit discussion paper, Capabilities and Risks from Frontier AI, and was briefed to U.S. Congressional audiences.
NTI | bio convened two working groups to discuss the Joint Assessment Mechanism (JAM) to discern the source of high-consequence biological events of unknown origin. To continue advancing discussions about establishing the JAM, Austrian Ambassador to the UN Alexander Marschik hosted NTI | bio and representatives from 16 nations for a working luncheon.
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Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security explores how new policy approaches, scientific advances and technological innovations can improve organizations, systems, policies and tools to prevent and respond to pandemics and biological threats.
CHS published the Model State Indoor Air Quality Act, providing a legal roadmap for reducing the spread of infectious diseases inside buildings. This was utilized by Massachusetts to introduce the Improve Indoor Air Quality bill. To promulgate the model law, Dr. Gigi Gronvall and colleagues published an article in JAMA.
CHS hosted two fireside chats: in September, Major General Paul Friedrichs discussed launching the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness & Response Policy; in October, CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen discussed evaluating lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, ways to strengthen CDC and restore trust in the institution, and key CDC priorities.
Our BWC Global Forum: Biotech, Biosecurity & Beyond podcast has 4 new episodes!
CHS convened a small meeting of experts on AIxBio governance with participation from AI companies, government officials and biosecurity policy experts on Nov 29 in Washington, DC.
Sign up for our newsletter, Health Security Decoded here.
Institute for Progress
The Institute for Progress (IFP) is a non-partisan research and advocacy organization dedicated to accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding humanity’s future.
Requests for information
How Project NextGen Can Create Better Vaccines by Juan Cambeiro
Making the CDC Modern by Arielle D’Souza
Preventing the Misuse of Breakthrough Health Research by Janika Schmitt
Mitigating Risks from Dual-Use Research by Alec Stapp and Arielle D’Souza
White papers
How ARPA-H’s Use-Inspired Research Can Accelerate Progress in Health by Janika Schmitt, Jassi Pannu, and Jacob Swett
News
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists referenced IFP’s congressional staff delegation trip
Science|Business referenced IFP’s work on AI risks in biology
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Effective Giving
Effective Giving is a nonprofit organization that helps major donors find the most promising solutions to the world's most pressing problems. Over the past few years, their Biosecurity team has focused on researching areas to prioritize within biosecurity, refining the investigation and evaluation of grants, and working closely with grantees.
We recommended a number of grants for the establishment of a new health security research centre based in Singapore, which we expect will launch early next year.
Beyond this centre, the organisations we have recommended grants to this year are: Blueprint Biosecurity, Brown Pandemic Center, Harvard CCDD (operational support for Marc Lipsitch), NTI bio, RAND; for a total of €8,0M in grants so far this year.
We’re currently investigating opportunities to strengthen security around DNA synthesis, in the context of the recent US Executive Order (on AI) and globally.
We’re doing a shallow investigation of various high-level interventions to reduce biological risks from state actors. In that context, we’ll be in Geneva in December for the third session of the BWC Working Group.
Council on Strategic Risks
The Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) is a nonprofit, non-partisan security policy institute devoted to anticipating, analyzing and addressing core systemic risks to security in the 21st century, with special examination of the ways in which these risks intersect and exacerbate one another.
CSR has released a new report, Addressing the Threat of Disease Spillover, on the intersection of ecological and biological security in zoonotic spillover prevention, underscoring the importance of bridging communities and activities.
This year, CSR will launch its Biodefense Budget Analysis, which will be made available for public use on our website, providing increased awareness and transparency for federal budgeting of biodefense efforts from 2019 to the present fiscal year cycle.
We recently published a review of the UK AI Safety Summit to assess the nexus of AI and biosecurity - a space that CSR will be heavily working in.
To keep up to date with announcements and postings, follow our accounts on LinkedIn and Twitter!
Concentric by Ginkgo Bioworks
Concentric offers a global operating system for collection, detection, response, and risk analysis to enable an early warning of biological threats. We generate actionable intelligence and expert decision support for the national security and public health sectors.
We expanded our work with the CDC’s Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance program (TGS) to monitor more than 30 new viruses, bacteria, and antimicrobial resistance targets—including several seasonal respiratory pathogens. The program expansion will launch at four of the program’s seven major international airports (New York, JFK, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington DC, Dulles).
Our epidemiology and risk analytics team has published two exciting papers, one focused on spillover risk published in the BMJ, and another on the risk of future epidemics as a joint Center for Global Development and Disease Control Priorities working paper.
Concentric by Ginkgo hosted a panel on AI and biosecurity and a keynote at the AI Fringe Summit in London, on the sidelines of the AI Safety Summit. Matt McKnight, General Manager, Biosecurity at Ginkgo Bioworks wrote a post about the convergence of AI and biology ahead of the event.
Centre for Long-Term Resilience
The Biosecurity Policy Unit at Centre for Longer-Term Resilience works closely with the UK Government and other stakeholders to reduce extreme biological risks.
The Centre for Long-Term Resilience has joined the UK’s recently formed Biosecurity Leadership Council, with Sophie Rose serving as one of the Council’s inaugural members.
At the request of the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, we ran a workshop on overcoming challenges with synthetic nucleic acid screening implementation, with our public report now available.
We published a report on the risks at the intersection of AI and Biosecurity.
We attended meetings in New York alongside the United Nations General Assembly, including an event on Artificial Intelligence and Biosecurity run by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Foreign Policy.
We participated in four Artificial Intelligence and Biosecurity events alongside the AI Safety Summit, including the UK Government’s horizon scanning workshop on AI safety risks across scientific disciplines and on a live-streamed panel at the AI Fringe.
1DaySooner
1Day Sooner is a nonprofit organization that advocates for high-impact medical studies and the efficient development and deployment of life-saving medical research and public health interventions.
Our work on indoor air quality interventions, particularly far-UVC as a means to lower respiratory disease burden and global catastrophic biorisk, was selected for phase II of the UChicago Market Shaping Accelerator Innovation Challenge.
We coordinated a letter signed by 13 other organizations in support of the establishment of an FDA Emerging Pathogens Preparedness Program.
We’re continuing to expand our global health work, including our advocacy for hepatitis C human challenge studies and an emerging campaign through 1Day Africa to accelerate R21 vaccine deployment.
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Jobs and Events
Job Postings
Nucleic Acid Observatory (SecureBio): Bioinformatics Research Scientist
Asia Center for Health Security (funded by Effective Giving):
1Day Sooner is hiring for several openings, including full-time positions as our hepatitis C campaign director, UK advocacy manager, and Operation Warp Speed 2 director. We are also looking for contractors for efforts related to our malaria campaign and Project Next Gen.
The Biological Weapons Convention Meeting of States Parties will occur December 11-13, just after the fourth working group meeting.
You can follow along with daily updates from CBW Events.
NTI | bio will host a side event featuring the winners of the seventh annual Next Generation for Biosecurity Competition.
You can find additional biosecurity and pandemic preparedness jobs on the 80,000 Hours job board.
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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily represent those of the newsletter authors. This is an independent project conducted outside of the authors’ organizational affiliations.