Common Mechanism Performance

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International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative·ibbis.bio/our-work/common-mechanism/common-mechanism-perf...

Credibility Rating

4/5

High(4)

High quality. Established institution or organization with editorial oversight and accountability.

Rating inherited from publication venue: International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative

Relevant to AI biosecurity governance: as AI tools lower barriers to bioweapon design, screening tools like the Common Mechanism represent a technical safeguard layer; this page documents its validated performance metrics.

Metadata

Importance: 52/100organizational reportreference

Summary

IBBIS presents performance testing results for the Common Mechanism, a free open-source biosecurity tool for screening synthetic DNA/RNA sequences. Testing demonstrated <2% false positive rates, compliance with industry best practices (validated by Twist Bioscience), and resilience to AI-generated evasion attempts, positioning it as a viable global standard for biosecurity screening.

Key Points

•Free, open-source sequence screening tool launched May 2024, designed to flag dangerous nucleic acid sequences without excessive false alarms
•Beta testing with Twist Bioscience and other synthesis providers confirmed compliance with industry best practices including IGSC Harmonized Screening Protocol
•Achieved <2% false positive rate on real synthetic biology designs, minimizing disruption to legitimate research orders
•Performance benchmarked as on par with existing commercial industry screening tools in standardized test sets
•Demonstrated resilience against AI-generated sequence challenges, relevant to biosecurity risks from AI-assisted biodesign

Cited by 1 page

Page	Type	Quality
IBBIS (International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science)	Organization	60.0

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- [About](https://ibbis.bio/about/)
  - [People](https://ibbis.bio/about/people/)
  - [Careers](https://ibbis.bio/about/careers/)
- [News](https://ibbis.bio/news/)
- [Our Work](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/)
  - [Commec Sequence Screening](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/common-mechanism/)
  - [Customer Screening](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/customer-screening/)
  - [Global Synthesis Map](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/global-dna-synthesis-map/)
  - [International Standards](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/international-screening-standards/)
  - [Sequence Biosecurity Standards](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/sequence-biosecurity-standards/)
  - [Vulnerability Disclosure](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/vulnerability-disclosure/)
- [Contact](https://ibbis.bio/contact/)

[![](https://ibbis.bio/wp-content/themes/ibbis/assets/images/header_logo.png)](https://ibbis.bio/)

- [About](https://ibbis.bio/about/)
  - [People](https://ibbis.bio/about/people/)
  - [Careers](https://ibbis.bio/about/careers/)
- [News](https://ibbis.bio/news/)
- [Our Work](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/)
  - [Commec Sequence Screening](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/common-mechanism/)
  - [Customer Screening](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/customer-screening/)
  - [Global Synthesis Map](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/global-dna-synthesis-map/)
  - [International Standards](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/international-screening-standards/)
  - [Sequence Biosecurity Standards](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/sequence-biosecurity-standards/)
  - [Vulnerability Disclosure](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/vulnerability-disclosure/)
- [Contact](https://ibbis.bio/contact/)

Common Mechanism \| Sequence Screening Performance

# Testing v0.1 of the Common Mechanism

The [Common Mechanism](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/common-mechanism/) is a free, open-source, globally-available tool for synthesis screening. Our automated software for screening sequences of nucleic acids (including DNA and RNA) was shown to sensitively flag sequences of concern without raising unnecessary alarms.

This page describes the results of testing done before the release of [version 0.1](https://github.com/ibbis-screening/common-mechanism/releases) of the Common Mechanism [sequence screening package](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/common-mechanism/get-started/). Before the [launch of the software in May 2024](https://ibbis.bio/ibbis-launches-the-common-mechanism-at-synbiobeta/), our testing showed:

- [**Compliance with industry best practices**](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/common-mechanism/common-mechanism-performance/#section-compliance-with-industry) when tested against real order customer streams by beta testers such as Twist Bioscience
- [**<2% false positive flags**](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/common-mechanism/common-mechanism-performance/#section-false-positives) of real synthetic biology designs
- [**Performance on par with industry screening tools**](https://ibbis.bio/our-work/common-mechanism/common-mechanism-performance/#section-performance-on-par) in a standard 

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