Letter from the Executive Director
Some recent organizational updates
I write with an overview of SecureBio’s progress towards mitigating catastrophic biorisks and advancing biosecurity, and changes to our Board of Directors.
Since we set up the organization in 2022, we have made major strides in two of our focus areas:
Working to delay the onset of the next pandemic by analyzing the capabilities of advanced AI to assist with bioweapons design and acquisition,
Designing and deploying a biosurveillance system that detects engineered pathogens before they have spread to more than 1% of the population.
SecureBio has also provided logistical and operational support to SecureDNA to help it build and release next-generation gene synthesis screening software that can detect orders of hazardous genes and oligos, including functional variants, down to 30 basepairs of DNA.
All these projects have yielded notable achievements, not least the AI team’s Virology Capabilities Test and use of its benchmarks by all major labs in pre-release evaluations, and the Nucleic Acid Observatory’s detection system, which now screens wastewater from more than a dozen sewersheds as well as three military facilities.
As the organization has grown and matured, we have decided to restructure our Board and bring in a wider range of experiences and perspectives.
In September 2024, Professor Kevin Esvelt decided to step back from the Board so that he could devote himself fully to his MIT professorship and the important biosecurity research he carries out at the university. We thank Professor Esvelt for his service and are deeply indebted to him for his wise counsel and assistance in getting our programmes up and running.
We are delighted that three new members have since joined the Board of Directors:
Christine Parthemore, CEO of the Council on Strategic Risks, a national security expert specializing in WMD and CBRN threats including addressing bioweapons;
Michael Specter, Staff Writer at The New Yorker, an award-winning journalist renowned for his reporting on science, technology, and global public health;
Liv Boeree, science communicator and philanthropist who co-founded Raising for Effective Giving. Liv is also a former world #1 ranked female poker player.
Sawyer Bernath and I continue to serve on the Board.
SecureBio is at an exciting juncture, and we are more confident than ever that the organization can tackle the biggest biorisks catalysed by advances in biotechnology.
We are always on the lookout for additional financial support to fund our team – please reach out to info@securebio.org if you’d like to learn more about how you could support our work, or donate directly on our website.
Dr. Benjamin Mueller
Executive Director and Chairman of the Board