Scientific advancement can produce vaccines, diagnostics, and lifesaving drugs. But the same tools can also make pathogens more transmissible, pathogenic, immune-evasive, or harder to detect.
Synthetic biology is a scientific and public safety frontier.
In
@PostOpinions,
@quay_dr suggests five ways the US should prepare for a new era of biomedical research:
1. Review high-risk research through a federal "Life Sciences Research Security Board"
2. Genetically watermark synthetic or manipulated pathogens
3. Extend containment beyond the laboratory door
4. Add enforcement to the UN Biological Weapons Convention
5. Build targeted surveillance where risk concentrates: airports, seaports, city wastewater systems, live-animal markets, and communities near high-containment laboratories
Read:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/…