CSET's Anna Puglisi was featured in a Nature article along with a report she co-authored. The article discusses the challenges faced by US policymakers in regulating research involving potentially harmful pathogens. The focal point of the discussion is the CSET report titled “Understanding the Global Gain-of-Function Research Landscape.”

Gain- and loss-of-function research have contributed to breakthroughs in vaccine development, genetic research, and gene therapy. At the same time, a subset of gain- and loss-of-function studies involve high-risk, highly virulent pathogens that could spread widely among humans if deliberately or unintentionally released. In this report, we map the gain- and loss-of-function global research landscape using a quantitative approach that combines machine learning with subject-matter expert review.

CSET's Anna Puglisi was cited in an article by CNN that delves into China's efforts to become a global leader in the biosciences by investing billions of dollars and collecting vast amounts of genetic data from its 1.4 billion population.

Steph Batalis, Caroline Schuerger and Vikram Venkatram explore three notable areas in the life sciences where LLMs are catalyzing meaningful advances: drug discovery, genetics, and precision medicine.

Vaccines keep the U.S. public healthy while safeguarding economic stability and biosecurity. This report assesses the domestic vaccine manufacturing landscape and identifies two major vulnerabilities: a reliance on foreign manufacturers and a lack of manufacturing redundancy. Maintaining a resilient vaccine supply will require the U.S. government to take steps to protect the existing supply, identify and monitor manufacturing vulnerabilities, and create a stronger domestic production base.

Pandemic threats are increasing as globalization, urbanization, and encroachment on animal habitats cause infectious outbreaks to become more frequent and severe. It is imperative that the United States build a pipeline of medical countermeasure development, beginning with basic scientific research and culminating in approved therapies. This report assesses preparedness for families of viral pathogens of pandemic potential and offers recommendations for steps the U.S. government can take to prepare for future pandemics.

CSET Director of Biotechnology Programs and Senior Fellow Anna Puglisi provided insights into China's illicit efforts to acquire genetic data from the United States in Politico's Morning Cybersecurity. She pointed out that such data will serve a wide variety of interests, from health care to agriculture. “It’s enablers like sequencing and other tools of discovery that are going to drive the bioeconomy, that are going to drive precision medicine,” she said. “The more data you have, the more you can start to understand what genes do.”

CSET's Dr. Caroline Schuerger, Dr. Steph Batalis, and Vikram Venkatram submitted this comment with recommendations for the National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative.

CSET's Anna Puglisi and Andrew Imbrie discuss actions democracies can take to shape the development of biotechnology.

CSET hosted a discussion with Dr. Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, on the importance of understanding the breadth and depth of global biological activity in preparing for future pandemics.