Screening all DNA synthesis and reliably detecting stealth pandemics | Kevin Esvelt | EAG Boston 23

EAG Talks

Pandemic security aims to safeguard the future of civilisation from exponentially spreading biological threats. In this talk, Kevin will outline two distinct scenarios–"Wildfire" and "Stealth"–by which pandemic-causing pathogens could cause societal collapse. He will then explain the ‘Delay, Detect, Defend’ plan to prevent such pandemics, including the key technological programmes his team oversees to mitigate pandemic risk: a DNA synthesis screening system that prevents malicious actors from synthesizing and releasing pandemic-causing pathogens; a pathogen-agnostic wastewater biosurveillance system for early detection of novel pathogens; AI/bio capability evaluations and technical risk mitigation strategies; and pandemic-proof PPE. Kevin M. Esvelt is an associate professor at the MIT Media Lab, where he leads the Sculpting Evolution Group in advancing biotechnology safely. In 2013, he invented CRISPR-based gene drive, kept it to himself until confident the technology favored defense, then revealed his findings and called for open discussion and safeguards before building the first CRISPR-based gene drive system and demonstrating reversibility in the laboratory. Having focused on mitigating catastrophic biorisks for over a decade, his MIT lab seeks to accelerate beneficial advances while safeguarding biotechnology against mistrust and misuse. Projects include building catalytic platforms for directed evolution, pioneering new ways of developing ecotechnologies with the guidance of local communities, developing early-warning systems to reliably detect any catastrophic biological threat, applying cryptographic methods to enable secure and universal DNA synthesis screening, and advising policymakers on how best to mitigate global catastrophic biorisks.