2025 "The Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology"

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https://hdl.handle.net/1911/118546
“The Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology” summit occurred on the 50th anniversary of the 1975 international meeting on recombinant DNA molecules at the historic Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California. Additional information about the program can be found on the summit website.

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Browsing 2025 "The Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology" by Author "Alexanian, Tessa"

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    1.5 Identifying and Addressing the Risk of the Environmental Release of Organisms — Engineered or Natural
    (Rice University, 2025) Chemla, Yonatan; Alexanian, Tessa; Barrios, Felix Moronta; Demirer, Gozde; Flores, Alonso; Karthikeyan, Smruthi; Lindner, Ariel B.; Mackelprang, Becky; Marken, John; Mitra, Aishwarya Sparky; Molla, Kutubuddin A.; Rudenko, Larisa; Syberg-Olsen, Mitchell J.; Wu, Felicia; Silberg, Jonathan (Joff); Voigt, Christopher A.
    The environmental release of both engineered and non-engineered organisms for Biotechnologies Beyond Conventional Containment (BBCC) offers unique solutions to pressing global challenges, including the prevention of soil degradation, the attenuation of nitrogen pollution, the replacement of harmful pesticides and herbicides, the remediation of anthropogenic contaminants and ‘forever chemicals’ mitigation. An evaluation of impacts, both positive and negative, rather than arbitrary prohibitions, is crucial for advancing the responsible use of organisms intentionally released into the environment. The history of biological interventions demonstrates that organisms have successfully contributed to agriculture, pollution remediation, ecosystem restoration, waste upcycling, and pest control, yet their full potential remains constrained by regulatory hurdles that do not fully account for modern scientific advancements. At the same time, some releases serve as cautionary tales, having caused harm due to a lack of regulation and monitoring. Unlike chemicals released to the environment, organisms — particularly those designed or selected for specific functions — can be managed with built-in safeguards, ranging from physical and genetic containment strategies to controlled ecological interactions to mitigate risks while maximizing benefits. Advancements in precision engineering, computational modeling, and real-time monitoring technologies now allow for unprecedented accuracy in tracking, assessing, and controlling the environmental impact of released organisms — capabilities inaccessible when recombinant DNA technology first emerged 50 years ago. Many regulatory structures were developed decades before today’s explosion of biological knowledge and insight was even imaginable. This resulted in our current policies that have become restrictive, limiting the deployment of innovative and promising biological solutions. A new approach to risk analysis is now needed that accounts for changes in science, and in society, which assesses the environmental release of natural, evolved, and engineered organisms based on their functions rather than their origin or how they were developed. By modernizing these frameworks to emphasize continuous assessment, real-world data collection, and adaptive risk assessment and management, stakeholders can create a regulatory pathway for the sustainable, responsible, and evidence-based integration of environmental biological technologies.
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    3.1 Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Biotechnology
    (Rice University, 2025) Bromberg, Yana; Altman, Russ; Imperiale, Michael; Horvitz, Eric; Dus, Monica; Townshend, Raphael; Yao, Vicky; Treangen, Todd; Alexanian, Tessa; Szymanski, Erika; Yassif, Jaime; Anta, Rafael; Lindner, Ariel B.; Schmidt, Markus; Diggans, James; Esvelt, Kevin M.; Molla, Kutubuddin A.; Phelan, Ryan; Wang, Mengdi; Wu, Felicia; de Carvalho Bittencourt, Daniela Matias
    Integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnology (AIxBio) creates revolutionary opportunities for progress in advancing the bioeconomy and addressing health concerns. AI advances promise to greatly accelerate beneficial biological discoveries and innovation and will undoubtedly be one of the deepest contributions of AI to people and society. However, AI methods can also increase risks of accidents and enable malevolent activities aimed at deliberately harmful applications such as bioweapons development. Effective AIxBio governance requires frameworks that enable the great rewards expected from AI in biosciences but that also consider more costly outcomes made possible by AI advances. Recent literature on AIxBio risk management highlights strategies that include tiered access controls, AI auditing mechanisms, and mandatory biological molecule synthesis screening and monitoring. However, many of these potential guardrails have yet to be developed and/or adequately evaluated. In addition to developing practical, technical solutions, it will also be important to develop guidelines and regulations, as well as incentives to follow these, to drive broad implementation of effective risk reduction solutions at the national and international level. Such policies can address significant gaps in national and global governance, but it will also be important to harmonize these approaches to address any regulatory divergence and inconsistencies in risk management across key world players.