The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), in collaboration with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and with support from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), will convene a two-day workshop on August 11-12, 2026, examining how advances in artificial intelligence (AI) may reshape biological risks, preparedness, and response in the years ahead.
As AI increasingly transforms the life sciences, including biological design, disease detection, and drug discovery, experts are working to better understand how these technologies could affect biosecurity, public health, and medical countermeasure preparedness. The workshop will bring together leaders from AI, biotechnology, public health, medicine, biosecurity, government, and industry to examine how AI-enabled biological risks may evolve, identify critical uncertainties, and explore opportunities to strengthen preparedness systems.
“Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing what is possible in biology, from scientific discovery to the development of tools that protect public health. At the same time, these advances raise important questions about how biological risks may evolve and whether current preparedness systems are equipped to respond,” said Victor J. Dzau, NAM president. “This workshop will bring together experts from across disciplines to help clarify those risks, identify knowledge gaps, and explore practical steps to strengthen preparedness for future biological threats.”
Discussions will explore how AI may meaningfully expand biological capabilities, with particular attention to AI-enabled biological and viral design. The workshop will examine how risks may emerge across the AI-bio lifecycle, from model development and biological design to synthesis, access, detection, and deployment, while also focusing on distinguishing what may be technically possible from what is likely in practice, identifying key uncertainties, and considering how public health, biosecurity, and preparedness systems may need to adapt to emerging technologies.
A multidisciplinary planning committee has been convened to help design the workshop and identify key topics for discussion. Committee members bring expertise spanning AI, computational biology, synthetic biology, genomics, infectious diseases, biosecurity and biosafety, medical countermeasure development, public health preparedness, global health, and science and technology policy. The Workshop Planning Committee Members are listed below.
- Lalitha Sundaram, PhD, University of Cambridge (Co-chair)
- Herbert “Skip” Virgin, MD, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine (Co-chair)
- Kate Adamala, PhD, University of Minnesota
- Jasper Götting, PhD, SecureBio
- Christian Happi, PhD, Redeemer’s University; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, PhD, A*STAR
- Harshini Mukundan, PhD, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Suryesh Kumar Namdeo, PhD, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
- Amarda Shehu, PhD, George Mason University
- Yunyun Wang, OpenAI
Insights from the workshop will help inform a forthcoming National Academies consensus study focused on how advances in AI and biotechnology may change biological risks and preparedness needs in the future. The study will examine both the potential benefits and risks of these technologies, including their implications for the development of vaccines, treatments, diagnostics, and public health response systems. The final report will provide recommendations to help policymakers, researchers, public health leaders, and other stakeholders strengthen preparedness for emerging biological threats.
Learn more about preparing for a future of AI-enabled biology.
