NTI | bio virtually gathers global experts to address biotechnology risks, life sciences oversight

The nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) | bio virtually convened an interdisciplinary group of experts and world leaders earlier this month to push for a global organization to reduce biotechnology risks, promote biosecurity and strengthen international oversight of life sciences research.

In all, more than 15 experts from international organizations, academia, as well as philanthropic and biotechnology companies, formed a steering group to advise NTI | bio as it works to form the new foundation. Specifically, they will help suss out the entity’s new structure, governance, and relationship with its stakeholders. In September last year, the need for such an organization was determined when gathered experts agreed that an international entity needed to oversee global biosecurity norms and best practices.

If successful, the organization would also work on an International Common Mechanism for DNA synthesis screening. Essentially, synthesis involved replicating and dividing cell DNA, granting identical cell copies of an original DNA. So synthesis screening is seen as important because of the potential for this ability to be misused, especially regarding the reproduction of and exposure of harmful biological agents.

NTI noted that the COVID-19 pandemic showcased how urgent these efforts are, with a worldwide demonstration of how severely a biological event can impact life, physically, economically, and politically. Global biosecurity norms, innovation, and proper government approaches overseen by a dedicated organization could, according to NTI, help reduce risks overall and form the basis of a collective effort to reduce emerging biological risks caused by rapid technological advances.