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Biosecurity Interventions
Approach
Biosecurity Interventions
An overview of the EA/x-risk biosecurity portfolio, spanning DNA synthesis screening, pathogen surveillance, medical countermeasures, AI capability evaluations, physical defenses, and governance reform.
559 words
Overview
The EA/x-risk community funds and operates a portfolio of biosecurity interventions designed to reduce catastrophic biological risks—both from natural pandemics and from deliberate misuse of advancing biotechnology and AI capabilities. Coefficient GivingOrganizationOpen PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy rebranded to Coefficient Giving in November 2025. See the Coefficient Giving page for current information. alone has directed $230M+ toward biosecurity through 140+ grants.1
These interventions are organized around Kevin Esvelt's Delay, Detect, Defend framework, which structures biosecurity responses into three complementary layers: slowing dangerous capability proliferation, building early warning systems for novel threats, and developing resilience through countermeasures and physical defenses.
Delay / Detect / Defend Framework
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- Delay interventions buy time by slowing the proliferation of dangerous capabilities—through DNA synthesis screening, AI output restrictions, and governance frameworks like the Biological Weapons Convention.
- Detect interventions build early warning systems. The most distinctive EA contribution here is untargeted metagenomic surveillance (sequencing all genetic material in wastewater samples), which can detect completely novel or engineered pathogens that would evade traditional PCR-based testing.
- Defend interventions build resilience so societies can survive even if delay and detection fail. This includes medical countermeasures (platform vaccines, broad-spectrum antivirals), far-UVC pathogen inactivation technology, and improved PPE.
The framework treats these layers as complementary: restrictions buy time while detection and defense infrastructure scales up.
Intervention Categories
| Intervention | Key Actors | Description |
|---|---|---|
| DNA Synthesis Screening | SecureDNAOrganizationSecureDNAA Swiss nonprofit foundation providing free, privacy-preserving DNA synthesis screening software using novel cryptographic protocols. Co-founded by Kevin Esvelt and Turing Award winner Andrew Yao, ...Quality: 60/100, IBBISOrganizationIBBIS (International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science)An independent Swiss foundation launched in February 2024, spun out of NTI | bio, that develops free open-source tools for DNA synthesis screening and works to strengthen international biosecurity ...Quality: 60/100/NTI, IGSC | Preventing orders of synthetic DNA that could reconstruct dangerous pathogens. SecureDNA provides free cryptographic screening to synthesis providers. |
| Metagenomic Surveillance | SecureBioOrganizationSecureBioA biosecurity nonprofit applying the Delay/Detect/Defend framework to protect against catastrophic pandemics, including AI-enabled biological threats, through wastewater surveillance (Nucleic Acid ...Quality: 65/100/NAO, CDC | The Nucleic Acid Observatory sequences all genetic material in wastewater to detect novel threats. CDC's proposed Biothreat Radar ($52M) builds on this work.2 |
| AI Bio-Capability Evaluations | SecureBio (VCT), Anthropic, OpenAI, RAND | Testing whether AI systems can meaningfully assist bioweapon development, including the Virology Capabilities Test and red-team studies.3 |
| Medical Countermeasures | Red Queen BioOrganizationRed Queen BioAn AI biosecurity Public Benefit Corporation founded in 2025 by Nikolai Eroshenko and Hannu Rajaniemi (co-founders of HelixNano), spun out to build defensive biological countermeasures at the pace ...Quality: 55/100, BARDA, CEPI | "Defensive co-scaling"—pre-building countermeasures against AI-mapped biothreats. Platform vaccines and broad-spectrum antivirals. |
| Far-UVC & Physical Defenses | Blueprint BiosecurityOrganizationBlueprint BiosecurityAn EA-funded biosecurity nonprofit founded in 2023 by Jake Swett, dedicated to achieving breakthroughs in pandemic prevention through far-UVC germicidal light, next-generation PPE, and glycol vapor...Quality: 60/100, Columbia University | Far-UVC light (222nm) inactivates 99.8% of airborne pathogens in occupied spaces. Blueprint runs the EXHALE evaluation program.4 |
| AI Capability Restrictions | Anthropic (ASL-3), OpenAI, Google DeepMind | Output filtering and deployment restrictions for frontier AI models based on CBRN capability evaluations. |
| Biosecurity Governance | NTI BioOrganizationNTI | bio (Nuclear Threat Initiative - Biological Program)The biosecurity division of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, NTI | bio works to reduce global catastrophic biological risks through DNA synthesis screening, BWC strengthening, the Global Health Secur...Quality: 60/100, CSIS, Council on Strategic Risks | Strengthening the BWC, policy research on AI-enabled bioterrorism, dual-use research oversight.5 |
Key Organizations
| Organization | Focus | Key Funding |
|---|---|---|
| SecureBioOrganizationSecureBioA biosecurity nonprofit applying the Delay/Detect/Defend framework to protect against catastrophic pandemics, including AI-enabled biological threats, through wastewater surveillance (Nucleic Acid ...Quality: 65/100 | Delay/Detect/Defend framework; NAO; AI evals | $9.4M+ from Coefficient Giving |
| SecureDNAOrganizationSecureDNAA Swiss nonprofit foundation providing free, privacy-preserving DNA synthesis screening software using novel cryptographic protocols. Co-founded by Kevin Esvelt and Turing Award winner Andrew Yao, ...Quality: 60/100 | DNA synthesis screening technology | Swiss foundation |
| IBBISOrganizationIBBIS (International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science)An independent Swiss foundation launched in February 2024, spun out of NTI | bio, that develops free open-source tools for DNA synthesis screening and works to strengthen international biosecurity ...Quality: 60/100 | International screening standards | Coefficient Giving via NTI |
| Blueprint BiosecurityOrganizationBlueprint BiosecurityAn EA-funded biosecurity nonprofit founded in 2023 by Jake Swett, dedicated to achieving breakthroughs in pandemic prevention through far-UVC germicidal light, next-generation PPE, and glycol vapor...Quality: 60/100 | Far-UVC technology deployment | $900K from Coefficient Giving (2024) |
| Red Queen BioOrganizationRed Queen BioAn AI biosecurity Public Benefit Corporation founded in 2025 by Nikolai Eroshenko and Hannu Rajaniemi (co-founders of HelixNano), spun out to build defensive biological countermeasures at the pace ...Quality: 55/100 | AI-driven medical countermeasures | $15M seed (OpenAI-led) |
| NTI BioOrganizationNTI | bio (Nuclear Threat Initiative - Biological Program)The biosecurity division of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, NTI | bio works to reduce global catastrophic biological risks through DNA synthesis screening, BWC strengthening, the Global Health Secur...Quality: 60/100 | Biosecurity governance, BWC | $7.8M from Coefficient Giving |
| Centre for Long-Term ResilienceOrganizationCentre for Long-Term ResilienceThe Centre for Long-Term Resilience is a UK-based think tank that has demonstrated concrete policy influence on AI and biosecurity risks, including contributing to the UK's AI Strategy and Biologic...Quality: 63/100 | UK biosecurity policy | EA-funded |
For a full list, see the Biosecurity Organizations section under Organizations in the sidebar.
Further Reading
- Is EA Biosecurity Work Limited to Restricting LLM Biological Use? — Detailed report analyzing the full intervention portfolio, funding flows, government adoption, and the restriction vs. resilience debate.