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SUMMARY:Biosecurity in the Age of Engineering Biology: Imperial College Lon
 don @ UNGA 2026
DESCRIPTION:Biosecurity in the Age of Engineering Biology \n\n\n\nImperia
 l College London is convening a new Global Biosecurity Network of Excell
 ence\, a platform for action-focused\, science-led research and delivery o
 n the biological threats reshaping global health security. \nWe are ple
 ased to invite you to a high-level roundtable on the margins of the 2026 U
 nited Nations General Assembly and High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Preventi
 on\, Preparedness and Response\, focused on the development of an AI-drive
 n biosecurity response system.\nThe roundtable will bring together experts
  from science\, health\, frontier AI labs\, the biotech and life sciences 
 industry\, funders\, policymakers from defence to health resilience\, and 
 international organisations. A key aim is to bridge existing global health
  security and pandemic preparedness architecture and networks with frontie
 r work in engineering biology and AI\, connecting both to the surveillance
 \, response\, and coordination systems this new moment demands. \n\n\n\nT
 he challenge \n\nAdvances in engineering biology and artificial intellige
 nce are lowering the barriers to creating biological agents\, with both le
 gitimate and malicious applications. The systems that protect us today wer
 e built to catch naturally occurring outbreaks. They are not designed for 
 a world in which biological threats can be deliberately engineered\, wheth
 er that means an altered pathogen\, a novel toxin\, or an agent unfamiliar
  enough to slip past existing detection tools. Closing that gap requires t
 wo things working together: the ability to design and test countermeasure
 s at speed\, and the intelligence to know when\, where\, and how to deploy
  them. No single institution\, government\, or company can build this alon
 e.\nThe discussion will be structured around four areas\, each intended to
  identify where partners in the room can contribute\, and where new coali
 tions need to form: \n\nRapid countermeasure design: How AI-driven biolo
 gical design could shrink the path from identifying a threat to having a
  validated response ready to deploy\, from years down to weeks. \nEarly w
 arning and threat intelligence: How we detect and make sense of unfamiliar
  biological signals early enough to act\, and how we tell a genuine emergi
 ng threat apart from noise. \nGetting the response right: How new counte
 rmeasures get tested and deployed responsibly for different types of th
 reats\, under real-world constraints of supply\, capacity\, and public tru
 st. \nGovernance and coordinated action: What frameworks and internationa
 l partnerships are needed to act with confidence before all the evidence i
 s in. \n\n\n\nSpeakers\nProfessor Hugh Brady is President of Imperial Col
 lege London. Prior to his appointment at Imperial\, he served as Vice-Chan
 cellor and President of the University of Bristol from 2015 to 2022\, and 
 President of University College Dublin (UCD) from 2004 to 2013. Trained in
  general medicine and nephrology\, he is an international authority on the
  pathogenesis of renal inflammation and diabetic kidney disease.\nProfesso
 r Karen Polizzi is Professor of Biotechnology at Imperial College London
 ’s Department of Chemical Engineering. Her research focuses on synthetic
  biology\, a key tool in responding to future biosecurity threats\, with a
 pplications in vaccine development and reducing reliance on agricultural s
 ystems that are vulnerable to climate change.\nProfessor Azra Ghani MBE FM
 edSci is Chair in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College Lond
 on’s School of Public Health\, Director of the MRC Centre for Global Inf
 ectious Disease Analysis and Academic Director of Imperial Global Singapor
 e. Her work focuses on infectious diseases and vaccine development\, essen
 tial in responding to potential biosecurity threats.\nAbout Biosecurity at
  Imperial\nBiosecurity in the age of engineering biology is an internation
 al issue. Effective responses require trusted partnerships between nations
  with aligned values\, complementary capabilities\, and shared commitment 
 to open science. The United Kingdom is precisely such a partner\, and Impe
 rial College London sits at the heart of the UK’s scientific leadership 
 in this space with strong links across the medical and life sciences
  spectrum including UKHSA\, WHO\, a network of world-leading hospitals.\
 nImperial was the first UK university to establish a dedicated centre 
 for engineering biology (originally founded as a centre for synthetic biol
 ogy). Furthermore\, we host world-leading researchers in infectious diseas
 es and epidemiological modelling who played a leading role internationally
  in the response to COVID-19 as well as a wide range of other infectious d
 isease threats (including influenza\, Ebola\, mpox and Zika).  Today\, w
 e hold an unrivalled position in the UK\, characterised by: \n\nThe stron
 gest research and training pipeline in the country across these domains\, 
 spanning undergraduate\, postgraduate and postdoctoral levels \nA truly
  multidisciplinary approach\, integrating life sciences\, medicine\, engi
 neering and economics \nAn established base for globally funded research
 \, that has brought in funding from the national agencies of dozens of cou
 ntries\, as well as from charities\, multinational companies and from majo
 r international philanthropic donors and funds\nWorld-leading expertise 
 in synthetic biology\, infectious disease research\, biomanufacturing\, ep
 idemiology and AI\nDemonstrated translational expertise both to rapidly 
 bring countermeasure tools to fruition and in providing policy support glo
 bally\nA vibrant translational ecosystem anchored at our White City Campus
 \, home to a growing cluster of start-ups in both engineering biology and 
 security\nThe London Biofoundry\, which is one of Europe’s premier auto
 mated biology platforms\, purpose-built for rapid\, high-throughput biolog
 ical design and testing\n\n
URL:https://www.imperial.ac.uk/events/212407/biosecurity-in-the-age-of-engi
 neering-biology-imperial-college-london-unga-2026/
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260921T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260921T160000
LOCATION:Cornell Club New York\, 6 E 44th Street\, New York\, NY\, 10017\, 
 United States
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