Our work on advancing one of the most promising technologies for combatting airborne disease
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is a critical defense against pathogens. In an airborne pandemic, PPE—especially respiratory PPE—is needed to physically protect the critical infrastructure workers who maintain core societal functions.
In June 2024, we released our PPE Blueprint in partnership with Gryphon Scientific, now Deloitte. This multi-year project developed a comprehensive assessment of the current global state of PPE. We examined the types of PPE needed in a severe scenario, strategies for stockpiling, and approaches for improving adoption. Our analysis concluded that in its current state, the PPE ecosystem cannot produce a sufficient amount of high quality respiratory PPE to stand up to future pandemics. Armed with these findings, we developed a set of recommendations for how philanthropists and governments can bridge gaps to increase both the quality of PPE and the resiliency of its supply chains.
Today, the PPE Program works on implementing the recommendations from the PPE Blueprint through a range of research and policy objectives. We are particularly interested in advancing the use, stockpiling, and manufacturing of highly protective reusable respirators.
We invite anyone with interest in our findings or possible collaboration to contact us at info@blueprintbiosecurity.org.
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Developing a Customer Screening Framework for the Life Sciences
Sarah r. carter ph.d. | March 2024 | Shallow investigation
Abstract
Since the 1970’s and the advent of recombinant DNA, biology has consistently become easier to engineer, and the pace of these advances is increasing. Many tools and capabilities for engineering biology are becoming more powerful, more affordable, and more widely available. These capabilities are critical for basic scientific research as well as advances in health, agriculture, and a wide range of applications in the burgeoning bioeconomy. However, access to these tools also raises the possibility that they could be accidentally or deliberately misused to cause harm by enabling development of toxins, pathogens, or other dangerous biological agents, including some not found in nature. Potential biological harms include high-consequence events such as the development and release of an engineered pathogen that causes a global catastrophe as well as a wide range of lower-consequence, higher-likelihood events. To prevent this type of misuse, policy experts have recommended expanding customer screening practices and policy frameworks to include a broad range of life sciences products, services, and infrastructure (Carter and DiEuliis, 2019a). Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have increased this type of risk and have intensified these calls for action (Carter, et al., 2023; Helena, 2023).
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