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 changingwhat is possible inbiology, from scientific discovery to thedevelopment oftoolsthatprotect public health. At the same time, these advances raise important questions abouthow biological risks may evolveandwhether 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 willexamine how risks mayemerge across the AI-bio lifecycle, from model development and biological design to synthesis, access, detection, and deployment, while also focusing ondistinguishing 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 beenconvenedto help design the workshop andidentifykey topics for discussion. Committee members bringexpertisespanning 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, Sܰ
- 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 Academiesfocused 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.
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