SecureBio

What does SecureBio do?

SecureBio is led by Prof. Kevin Esvelt of the MIT Sculpting Evolution Group. Esvelt’s work has been published in Nature and Science, and covered in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, PBS and NPR.

SecureBio’s projects cover the full spectrum of pandemic preparedness work:

• Preventing a terrible pandemic from occurring in the first place;
• Detecting the next pandemic as early as possible; and
• Protecting people if the worst happens.

In the future, SecureBio also hopes to make policy recommendations in order to help governments and nonprofit groups prepare for the next pandemic.

As an example of its work, SecureBio has been conducting projects to advance research into the safety and efficacy of far-UVC germicidal irradiation for passive suppression of future outbreaks, including convening several meetings of experts in UVC and indoor air quality and developing a co-ordinated research plan to address gaps in the existing evidence.

Other examples of SecureBio’s work include:

• Nucleic Acid Observatory — a project aiming to pioneer widespread, untargeted metagenomic sequencing of our environment to provide reliable early warning of all biological threats — including those we have never seen before.
• Secure DNA — a project which has developed a highly specific and fully automated screening mechanism to scan DNA orders for potential threats.

What evidence is there of SecureBio’s effectiveness?

SecureBio meets our criteria to be a listed charity based on the recommendation of one of our trusted evaluators, Longview Philanthropy. (Our trusted evaluators are charitable giving experts who focus on impact — their research into the best charities means your donations can do even more good. Learn more about charity evaluators we trust and why.)