Bureau Biosecurity

On Wednesday 14 May 2025, the Biosecurity Office will organize an International Biosecurity Symposium at the #MECC in #Maastricht. Leading #international speakers will talk about biosecurity and dual-use. The symposium will take place prior to the annual conference of the European Biosafety Association (EBSA) at the same location. During the International Biosecurity Symposium, Jaime Yassif, Filippa Lentzos, Cyril Martel, Marcel van Bergen, Kazunobu Kojima, Dana Perkins, and other international speakers will take you into the world of #biosecurity and #dualuse. Topics such as #artificialintelligence, #emergingtechnologies and #biosecurityguidance will be discussed. In addition, attention will be paid to biosecurity in practice. The unique connection with the #EBSA congress and sufficient space for networking allows for connections with European stakeholders, thereby strengthening the (inter)national #biosafety network. Participation is free of charge and registration is now open via our website https://lnkd.in/e2eB3XXX. We also invite you to submit your oral presentation proposal on the topic of laboratory biosecurity for the International Biosecurity Symposium. #biosecurity #bioriskmanagement #AI #biorisk #RIVM #symposium EBSA European BiSafety Association RIVM National Institute for Public Health and the Environment

👇READ THIS👇 https://t.co/iHk2P7B6Wg A vital new article about the dangers of mirror life, authored by a diverse, credible, and international group of scientists around the world who are dedicated to the peaceful benefits of biology. This is a fantastic example of responsible science, with many of the authors having been involved in the work and calling attention to the risks they have uncovered.  BLUF: The authors discuss a new threat -- mirror life –  which, if created, could bring grave new impacts with significant threats to human life and the food supply. I have learned about  and discussed these risks with several of the authors, and I believe they are making the right historic decision to stand up together, now, to call for actions to avoid the risks they highlight. As with all life sciences research-related risks, the next steps are crucial, but the HOW – the way in which the next steps are conducted – is even more crucial. The authors rightly call on experts and governments to globalize the discussion from the outset. The goal is to transparently and collectively define a way ahead to avoid devastating impacts that could be posed by the creation of mirror life. This issue will impact every country and region, including those already at greater risk for instability, food insecurity, and disease. Going forward, I’d like to see an international conference involving experts from all regions of the world to discuss the risk, impacts, and oversight tools required to address this new set of challenges. Kudos to the authors, including Wilmot James from our Brown University Pandemic Center, along with many long-time experts, friends, and colleagues for this work.

📢 Today, at the fifth session of the Working Group on the Strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention, taking place at 🏢 the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, Uganda led a side event on 👉 Strengthening National Implementation of Biosecurity: Uganda’s experience from Strategy to Coordination and Pathogen Control 👈 during which captivating topics were presented : 👉 ✔️ Strengthening the BWC through Civil-Military Cooperation 👉 ✔️ Linking Public Health and Security for Stronger Biosecurity 👉 ✔️ Global Guidance Framework for Dual-Use Research: Ugandan Experience and lessons learned 👉 ✔️ National Inventory of Pathogens: Experiences and Lessons 👉 ✔️ Non-State Actor Engagement in BWC National Implementation Well done Peter Babigumira Ahabwe, Sandra Matinyi, Godwin Bagashe Bagyenzi, Faith Bagamuhunda, Biejan Poor Toulabi, PhD 👏 👏 👏 👏 ☀️ Investing in collaborative efforts across the different areas of global health security and ☀️ working collectively across disciplines, sectors, regions, and levels is the best way forward to strengthen cooperation in health security. 🚀 Rapid technological developments and innovations have both potential benefits and risks including safety and security risks, that could be caused by accidents during experiments, inadvertent and deliberate misuse to harm humans, animals, plant, agriculture and the environment. 🌈 The World Health Organization global guidance framework for the responsible use of the life sciences: mitigating biorisks and governing dual-use research released in September 2022, provides values and principles, tools and mechanisms to support Member States and key stakeholders to mitigate and prevent biorisks and govern dual-use research. 📅 The framework is intended to be adapted and contextualized to reflect  Member States and stakeholders’ needs, priorities, and perspectives. 😊 I am so pleased to see Uganda moving forward on this journey. 😊 🙏 🙏 🙏 Anna Laura Ross, ★Emmanuelle Tuerlings, Bakainaga Andrew, Emmanuel Turyatunga, Sandra Matinyi, Tebba Andrew, Joseph Nkodyo, Lawrence Byamugisha, MD 📢 QR codes on key publications and products are available below if you are interested. #Biosecurity, #Dualuseresearch, #Biosafety, #Governance

Last week, Thursday 7 November, the Biosecurity Office organized the annual Biosecurity Knowledge Day in #Amersfoort. During this day, we welcomed over 100 participants from academia, industry, government, and knowledge institutes to discuss #biosecurity from different perspectives and to network, learn from each other and exchange experiences. The highlights of the plenary program were: • An update on biosecurity and the new tools developed by the Biosecurity Office by Rik Bleijs • Keynote speaker Piers Millett spoke about biosecurity aspects of artificial intelligence #AI and #DNAsynthesis.  • Short talks by Annemarie Bouma on List of animal pathogens in the new EU Animal Health Regulation, Jerome Larosch on the Dutch contributions to the BWC and Jorrit Broertjes on the epidemiology of potential bioterrorism agents in The Netherlands. After lunch, the participants split up into parallel sessions and participated in 2 of the following sessions:  • Newly launched #escaperoom: Participants enjoyed taking on the challenge to solve a biosecurity scenario, while increasing their #awareness on incident response, 8 pillars of #biosecurity, dual-use, insider threat, and #export controls.  • Dual-use: Participants discussed how to start a conversation with researchers about dual-use with the aid of an infographic.  • Diagnostics: In this session participants used case studies to discover how to deal with potential bioterrorist threats in a diagnostic setting. • E-Learnings: Several e-Learnings were demonstrated and participants discussed how to embed e-learning in the #educational curriculum and what are the experiences regarding its effectiveness and the challenges involved. • DNA sequence screening: A new methodology (International Common Mechanism for #DNA #Synthesis #Screening) for screening sequences and clients was explained and how to apply it in practice. • World Health Organization (WHO) Joint External Evaluation in the Netherlands: Participants discussed the current level of implementation of #biosafety and #biosecurity in The Netherlands as input for the upcoming #WHO Joint External Evaluation in the Netherlands. The presentations of the plenary session can be found on our website: https://lnkd.in/eyM4TR84. #biosecurity #dualuse #awareness #ibbis #DNAsynthesis #JEE #eLearnings RIVM National Institute for Public Health and the Environment

The Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) has been informed about #biosecurity and #dual-use issues and challenges by the Biosecurity Office. #rivm

Great work by the team of #EVAg to develop dual-use research of concern (#DURC) guidelines. This will certainly help to increase dual-use awareness among researchers! https://lnkd.in/eDFGchYe

Over the last couple of weeks, the Netherlands Biosecurity Office has delivered several informative presentations and outreach activities to increase biosecurity and dual-use #awareness among researchers and biosafety officers (#BVF). A biosecurity introduction was given to newly installed biosafety officers, organised by the #GMO office (https://lnkd.in/e7jWndir). During the Research Days (September 30 - October 3; https://lnkd.in/eMFiRqyh) at the University Medical Center Utrecht (#UMCU), our team introduced the tools of the Biosecurity Office and explained how to recognize dual-use risks in research. The theme of the Research Days this year was “Team Science” and were entirely dedicated to research, aimed to shine a spotlight on colleagues who wholeheartedly commit to doing (safe and secure) research. Furthermore, a lecture was delivered for physicians specialized in medical microbiology about #bioterrorism, #biosecurity and #dualuse.

Have you registered for the annual Biosecurity Knowledge Day in #Amersfoort on Thursday 7 November 2024? Registration will close on Monday October 28th at noon: https://lnkd.in/eyM4TR84 The full program and descriptions of the parallel sessions can be found on our website https://lnkd.in/eyM4TR84. You can register via https://lnkd.in/eyM4TR84, participation is free. For whom: Professionals in biosafety, biosecurity, biorisk and security Location: Mercure Hotel, De Nieuwe Poort 20, Amersfoort When: Thursday 7 November 2024, 9:00-17:00 Language: Dutch #biosecurity #biosafety #dualuse #awareness #ibbis #DNAsynthesis #escaperoom #WHO #JEE #RIVM

Only three weeks left till the annual #Biosecurity Knowledge Day in Amersfoort with a very interesting program. Visit https://lnkd.in/eyM4TR84 and register to be part!

Yesterday, the Biosecurity Office attended the very interesting symposium of the Dutch Biological Safety Officers Platform (https://lnkd.in/gdQm_8t8), chaired by Gijsbert van Willigen. Presentations by Elise de Reus, Cradle.bio (https://lnkd.in/gmCwWPw5) about the use of #AI to design optimized proteins and Yuval Mulla, VU Amsterdam about #phage therapies were one of the highlights. The use of AI in #proteindesign also raises issues on #biosafety and #biosecurity (#dualuse risks) that should be discussed not only with researchers in the life sciences, but also within the field of computer sciences. AI and #biotechnology is also a topic during the Biosecurity Knowledge day (https://lnkd.in/eyM4TR84) on November 7th in Amersfoort.