GCBR Organization Updates - July 2024
Updates from 1DaySooner, Blueprint Biosecurity, Convergent Research, Council on Strategic Risks, Ginkgo Biosecurity, IBBIS, SecureBio, Sentinel Bio, Scowcroft Institute, and Johns Hopkins CHS
Welcome to our fifth newsletter of updates from organizations working to reduce global catastrophic biological risks (GCBRs). In this issue:
The launch of Sentinel Bio;
A report on making the UK a global leader in human challenge studies;
The launch of the Global Biosecurity Accelerator;
The Common Mechanism DNA synthesis screening tool is available for public use;
And more!
After trialing a bi-monthly schedule, we are now returning to quarterly updates to accommodate our collaborators’ preferences better.
1Day Sooner
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.
In March, the WHO released draft guidelines on the potential use of human challenge studies in response to emerging public health threats. In April, 1Day Sooner hosted an unofficial symposium with drafters of the guidelines, experts in public health, bioethics, and and infectious disease, and former human challenge participants. You can read notes from the symposium here.
1Day Sooner coordinated expert feedback on and advocated for revisions to California's SB 1308, intended to reduce indoor ozone pollution. We were concerned that the bill as written could have inadvertently banned germicidal UV light-based air cleaning technology. The bill was withdrawn in late June.
We published a report on making the UK a global leader in human challenge studies with the UK Day One Project.
Blueprint Biosecurity
Blueprint Biosecurity is a nonprofit dedicated to achieving breakthroughs in humanity’s ability to prevent, mitigate, and suppress pandemics.
In partnership with Gryphon Scientific, we’ve just published our Blueprint on Pandemic-Proof PPE. We offer recommendations for ensuring that vital workers will have the PPE they need to perform their jobs safely during a pandemic.
We are starting to plan international workshops and engagement on next-gen PPE. If your work is relevant to the PPE ecosystem and would like a briefing on the report, reach out to us at info@blueprintbiosecurity.org.
Our far-UVC team presented at the International Ultraviolet Association (IUVA) Americas Meeting and presented and held a workshop at the International Congress on Far-UVC Science and Technology (ICFUST). We’re also sponsoring and presenting at Indoor Air 24.
We’re continuing our work on built environment transmission suppression and beginning writeups on triethylene glycol and portable air cleaners.
We continue to grow with two new hires, including a Program Director for our PPE focus area.
Convergent Research
Convergent Research launches Focused Research Organizations (FROs) to tackle large-scale, tightly coordinated, non-profit projects. Their biosecurity team is investigating FROs to reduce risks from pandemics.
Last year, Convergent Research roadmapping analysis convened a workshop with top experts on solid-state UV emitters to scope out the most promising approaches in far-UVC emitter development, forecast timelines with respect to relevant milestones, and list priorities for R&D and broader ecosystem support. The results are summarized in the workshop report.
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.
At NATO’s 75th Anniversary Summit in July, CSR will cohost a discussion on fortifying global biosecurity in the face of high-tech threats as part of the Foreign Policy Security Forum.
In early July, CSR announced the members of the 2024–2025 Fellowship for Ending Bioweapons, the program’s fifth cohort.
In June, CSR launched the Global Biosecurity Accelerator at the Helsinki Biosecurity Dialogue co-hosted by the Finnish government. The initiative will serve as a force multiplier dedicated to improving global resilience to biological threats by convening key leaders, and sharing ideas and lessons to support and promote strong bio policies and programs across the world.
In May, we published an update to our Biodefense Scorecard. This update detailed the undesirable action regarding the Department of Energy’s Bioassurance program while highlighting the recent progress on expanded diplomacy on pathogen early warning.
Ginkgo Biosecurity
Ginkgo Biosecurity is building and deploying the next-generation infrastructure and technologies that global leaders need to predict, detect, and respond to a wide variety of biological threats.
We hosted our annual Ferment conference in April -- you can explore our biosecurity products and learn about global biosecurity in practice from Drs. Nikki Romanik, Cindy Friedman, and Wilmot James.
We and our collaborators at Northeastern University were awarded a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to build an open-access, AI-enabled measles forecasting model to empower proactive public health measures, such as immunization campaigns.
We announced plans to launch CUBE-D, a new Doha-based hub for pathogen monitoring in the Middle East and beyond.
We've discussed our work and the future of biosecurity technology on the Burn Bag podcast and the Dynamist podcast.
Our head of Epidemiology & Modeling, Nita Madhav, took the stage at Devex CheckUp @ WHA77 to discuss innovation for health equity.
IBBIS
IBBIS is a Geneva-based nonprofit that works collaboratively with global partners to strengthen biosecurity norms and develop innovative tools to uphold them.
IBBIS launched the Common Mechanism, our open-source, globally available tool for DNA synthesis screening, at SynBioBeta in May. Anyone can now get started with the sequence screening tool.
We recently joined the International Gene Synthesis Consortium and have been participating in the ongoing EBRC-NIST workshops to develop tools and mechanisms for screening performance evaluation.
We published several papers in the Applied Biosafety special issue on Synthetic Genomics, including Progress and Prospects for a Nucleic Acid Screening Test Set, Developing a Common Global Baseline for Nucleic Acid Synthesis Screening, and Five Things Not to Do When Discovering a Biosecurity Vulnerability.
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 is sequencing and analyzing wastewater samples from a major US airport and wastewater treatment plant; collaborating with prominent virology labs to generate large volumes of wastewater sequencing data from other cities; and launching an effort to collect and sequence pooled nasal swab samples. More updates here.
The AI team—now led by Seth Donoughe—is partnering with regulators and frontier model developers to de-risk forthcoming AI model releases against severe biological hazards. We also collaborated with the Center for AI Safety to develop a benchmark that assessed non-hazardous scientific information that could serve as a proxy for hazardous material.
SecureDNA is finalizing a new exemption list feature that allows biosafety authorities to issue exemptions for approved DNA synthesis orders. They are seeking feedback from labs, biosafety officers and DNA synthesis providers on whether the exemption list system meets all requirements. Please contact kirsten@securedna.org if interested.
Sentinel Bio
Sentinel Bio is a new non-profit philanthropic fund that supports efforts to eliminate pandemic risks.
Sentinel Bio was launched out of Ergo Impact as an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit by Claire Qureshi (CEO) and Joshua Monrad (Program Director). We previously led biosecurity grantmaking at Effective Giving and will carry forward key collaborations with grantees and philanthropic partners from this work.
We focus on three mission areas:
Understanding the drivers of catastrophic pandemics
Strengthening safeguards on advanced biotechnologies
Bolstering global pandemic preparedness
We recently made a $50,000 grant to the Open Molecular Software Foundation to support a fellowship for Samuel Curtis focused on biosecurity for biological design tools.
In the coming months, we plan to share more information on our website about our priority areas and how we work – get in touch to learn more in the meantime.
Texas A&M Scowcroft Institute
The Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs is a policy-oriented research institute and think tank at Texas A&M University. Its Biosecurity and Pandemic Policy Program is dedicated to promoting a world safe, secure, and resilient against existential biological threats.
The Pandemic and Biosecurity Policy Program's Director, Gerry Parker, will testify at a hearing titled “Risky Research: Oversight of U.S. Taxpayer Funded High-Risk Virus Research” before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Thursday, July 11, 2024, at 10:30 a.m ET.
The Scowcroft Institute will co-host the Operation Warp Speed 2.0 Conference on December 5 with 1Day Sooner. The conference will be hosted at the Texas A&M DC site.
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (newsletter) 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 continues to assist policymakers and other key stakeholders in AIxBio governance. We provided responses to NTIA RFC on Dual-Use Foundation AI Models; NSCEB Interim Report and AIxBio Policy Options; and NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
Dr. Amesh Adalja and colleagues published 4 major reports dissecting pandemic-prone viral families and continues to advocate for research-informed prioritization of viral families with true pandemic potential to guide medical countermeasure development.
Our BWC Forum: Biotech, Biosecurity & Beyond podcast has 4 new episodes!
CHS hosted 3 Capitol Hill Steering Committee events: in February, on the President’s EO on AIxBio; in April, on US pandemic preparedness investments; in May, to discuss how US agencies will strengthen biodefense.
Together with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, CHS facilitated the Southeast Asia Strategic Biosecurity Dialogues in Singapore and led roundtable discussions on current and emerging biosecurity issues facing the region.
Jobs, events, and other opportunities
You can find additional biosecurity and pandemic preparedness jobs on the 80,000 Hours job board.
Ginkgo Biosecurity is hiring a Director of Infrastructure Enablement and a Senior R&D Scientist.
The MIT group Sculpting Evolution is hiring wetlab staff to support the Nucleic Acid Observatory program. More information available here and here.
Rolling call for applicants for CSR’s Mid-Career Biodefense Bootcamp.
Applications for NTI’s fall 2024 internships are now open until July 14.
Call for nominations of experts to provide scientific advice within the Biological Weapons Convention; application deadline: 14 July.
Sign up for this 2024 Summer Webinar Series run by the Horizon Institute for Public Service, partnering with the Inclusive Abundance Initiative, the Policy Entrepreneurs Network, and the Scowcroft Institute for International Affairs at the Bush School of Texas A&M University.
For everyone based in DC: There will be a Biosecurity Happy Hour on Tuesday, July 16, 5:30 - 7:30 pm EDT.
We regularly solicit updates from a group of organizations that we believe are doing impactful work to reduce GCBRs in order to improve transparency, facilitate collaboration, and otherwise accelerate progress in our community.
Do you have any opportunities (jobs, events, etc.) you would like to share with our network? Please use this form to submit them.
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Cover image credit: Berkshire Community College Bioscience Image Library from https://www.flickr.com/photos/146824358@N03/36248755355/in/gallery-141423754@N05-72157673950484678/.