Biotech creates effective biodefense – key elements improved through process of biotech development

[Kavita, Associate Director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Security Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, "Emerging and Enabling Technologies in Biodefense", National Library of Medicine, 3/31/19, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123622/, accessed 7/8/22, GDI-cc]

*MCM = medical countermeasures

The emergence of new biotechnologies provides great promise for biodefense, especially for key objectives of biosurveillance and early warning, microbial forensics, risk and threat assessment, horizon scanning in biotechnology, and MCM development, scale-up, and delivery. Understanding and leveraging newly-developed capabilities afforded by emerging biotechnologies require knowledge about cutting-edge research and its real or proposed application(s) to analogous needs, the process through which biotechnologies advance, and the educational and research infrastructure that promotes multi-disciplinary science. When combined with knowledge about biodefense gaps that could be addressed through science and technology, creative scientists, engineers, and decision-makers can design research agendas or concepts based on the identified gaps and S&T needs, and that leverage emerging biotechnologies. Innovation in research and technology development are driven by sector-specific needs and the convergence of the physical, chemical, material, computer, engineering, and life sciences. Biotechnologies developed for other sectors could be applied to biodefense, especially if the individuals involved are able to innovate in concept design and development. Of all biodefense objectives, biosurveillance seems to have reaped the most benefit from emerging biotechnologies, specifically the integration and analysis of diverse clinical, biological, demographic, and other relevant data. More recently, scientists have begun applying synthetic biology, genomics, and microfluidics to development of new products and platforms for MCMs. Unlike these initiatives, investments in microbial forensics have been few, limiting its ability to leverage biotechnology advances for collecting and analyzing data. Looking to the future, emerging biotechnologies can provide new opportunities for enhancing biodefense by addressing capability gaps.