📊New Data Snapshot NIH funding helps fuel innovation directly — resulting in 84,000 U.S. patents — but its impact is felt much more broadly. Almost half of all research areas in the global patent landscape contain NIH-funded research. cset.georgetown.edu/publication/...

The plan also promotes and emphasizes the importance of scientific, including biological, datasets- in line with @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social recommendations for the plan, which you can read here: cset.georgetown.edu/publication/..., and with other CSET work: cset.georgetown.edu/publication/....

Focusing on bio, one provision is a federal funding requirement for DNA synthesis screening- a useful tool in the toolbox for limiting biological risk. Check out @stephbatalis.bsky.social and I's piece breaking down the kind of decisions screeners have to make: thebulletin.org/2025/04/how-...

On Tuesday, scientists held an event organized by House Democrats in which they stood in front of posters outlining their work — and the federal cuts that now threaten it.

Antimicrobial resistance is a huge issue and an oft-forgotten killer. It kills more people each year than HIV/AIDS or malaria. This article is fascinating- it points out that while much of the AMR prevention discussion focuses on overuse of antimicrobials, underuse can also be a major issue.

Amidst all the discussion about AI safety, how exactly do we figure out whether a model is safe? There's no perfect method, but safety evaluations are the best tool we have. That said, different evals answer different questions about a model!

"Red-teaming" isn't a catch-all term (or methodology!) to evaluate AI safety. So, what else do we have in the toolbox? In our recent blog post, we explore the different questions we can ask about safety, how we can start to measure them, and what it means for AIxBio. Check it out! ⬇️

News like this isn't just a concern for public health practitioners - it should also be a big red flag for U.S. national security folks. America's biodefense strategy uses robust health infrastructure to deter bad actors. Right now, we're tearing down our own defenses so adversaries don't have to.

A Trump executive order calls for putting an end to "dangerous gain-of-function research" -- prompting experts to share concerns about its potential impact on infectious disease research. @stephbatalis.bsky.social @raz524.bsky.social www.medpagetoday.com/special-repo...

This has only become more relevant in the past week. Research cuts, new hurdles for vaccine trials, and tariffs on key medical countermeasures aren’t just risking Americans' health—they’re dismantling U.S. biodefense so our adversaries don’t have to. @defenseone.bsky.social

The Pandora Report is easily one of my favorite newsletters right now. A great one-stop shop for timely health + biosecurity policy news, especially with too many “Breaking News” alerts flying around fight now to follow. Plus, it always sends me down rabbit holes with great links. Highly recommend.

🚨 Latest op-ed is out in Defense One! “Dismantling critical preparedness offices, cutting infrastructure and funding, and allowing misinformation to derail the response are not just bad for healthcare—they’re dangerous national security signals.” www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/0...

When customers order synthesized DNA, how do companies know whether it's safe to send? For @thebulletin.org, CSET's @stephbatalis.bsky.social & @vikramvenkatram.bsky.social explore what it takes to keep things safe. thebulletin.org/2025/04/how-...

In our latest piece for @thebulletin.org, @vikramvenkatram.bsky.social and I put YOU, the reader, in the shoes of a 🧬DNA synthesis provider🧬 to demonstrate how much tougher customer screening is than it may seem, and why guidance would be helpful for providers trying to make tricky decisions.⬇️

"We all rely on science [...] Businesses and farmers rely on science and engineering for product innovation, technological advances, and weather forecasting. Science helps humanity protect the planet and keeps pollutants and toxins out of our air, water, and food." docs.google.com/document/d/1...

NEW: Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.)& Trump's former NatSec Advisor Matt Pottinger make the case that funding for scientific R&D isn't a gift to academia. It's vital to U.S. national security, as China, the United States' primary strategic adversary, is already investing heavily in R&D. shorturl.at/PgUK0

Not only this, but most of the NIH research was to ID biological targets/causes of disease rather than direct drug development—work that often isn't in the domain of the private sector. Cutting federal funding would mean less of the foundational science that makes future breakthroughs possible.

A beautiful day and the scientists just wanna science, man.

TLDR: We can’t try to gain global leadership *and* destabilize our NIH/NSF funding edge. We aren’t just at risk of losing out on essential scientific advances. The global leader also gets to set global norms, shape future tech, and a HUGE economic advantage. eto.tech/blog/federal...

I was asked on a panel yesterday what keeps me up at night: It’s this.👇 Even though my day job is to think about bioweapons + bad actors, THIS is what has me fearful. The long tail of this could undermine bio/med innovation, public health infrastructure, and the economies built on them for decades.

At a time of intense global competition, reducing funding to NIH and NSF isn’t just a budget issue. It’s a strategic misstep that could undermine U.S. influence in biotech and AI for decades. Read more in my recent post with CSET's ETO👇

Evo 2's release yesterday isn’t just impressive (though it is!)—it’s also making waves in the AIxBio policy space as the largest fully-open biological AI model to date. 🧬 ⬇️Here are a few policy implications I’ll be keeping an eye on:

My favorite thing about working at @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social? Learning something new every day from the experts I'm lucky enough to sit next to - from cybersecurity to AI evals to export controls (and more!) Don’t take it from me - join the virtual CSET water cooler here: bsky.app/starter-pack...

The dogs of Dupont Circle in the snow this morning! @capitalweather.bsky.social #dcsnow #dmvsnow #dcsnow2025 a

The US has work to do to get ahead in biotech and AI - and building a safe and resilient innovation ecosystem will also require us to balance advances with safeguards. Glad for the opportunity to put together a starting point in my new report for CSET, below!⬇️

🤖🧬 How does AI plug into harmful biological outcomes, and what options do we have to make things safer? My new report for @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social maps biorisk pathways and the toolkit of corresponding safeguards. Check it out and let me hear your thoughts!⬇️ cset.georgetown.edu/publication/...

Excited to share my newest report for @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social, where I dive deeper into governance tools to mitigate biological risks (with and without AI). Biosecurity and Biodefense are wide-ranging endeavors, and it's worth looking at the end-to-end landscape for solutions🔬

Chemical and biological AI models vary in type, with different users, use cases, outputs, and capabilities. Each needs targeted safety evaluations. Check out my and @stephbatalis.bsky.social's new response to a NIST/AISI RFI on chem-bio models! cset.georgetown.edu/publication/...

The real souvenir from my trip to Iceland last month? What it did to my Spotify algorithm: