URoL:ASC: Next-Generation Biological Security and Bio-Hackathon

生物技术包括各种提高全球数十亿人生活质量的技术。现代生物技术经常使用生命系统或生命材料--通常是以工程细胞的形式--用于治疗或诊断疾病、制造生物燃料、或生产食品或膳食补充剂。这些可以被认为是生物资产。生物安全是一种用于防止特定生物资产被不必要地释放或捕获的过程，特别是如果该资产具有潜在的致病性或对环境有害的情况。目前的生物安全方法主要依赖于限制物理访问：例如，生物资产被限制在高生物安全实验室。目前的解决办法缺乏任何措施，一旦资产突破其受限环境，就无法防止生物材料的不必要扩散。这相当于通过不使用密码保护您的手机，但将其存储在上了锁的抽屉中来保护您的数据。只要手机保持锁定状态，您的数据就会受到保护。然而，任何实际拥有这部手机的人都可以使用它并访问你的数据。同样，在目前的生物安全方法下，任何人都可以使用生物资产，只要他们能够访问它。这项研究的目标是开发内在嵌入生物技术资产中的生物安全措施，就像手机上嵌入的密码身份验证一样。这种嵌入式安全可以防止某人访问您的数据，即使他们实际拥有手机也是如此。这项研究的成功完成将导致生物安全和安全协议的范式转变。除了极大地改善遏制和资产保护外，由此产生的技术还将增加公众对使用工程生物系统的信心。这项研究的目标是将生物安全从一个可操作的技术平台过渡到一个新的生物内在信息技术平台。要实现这一点，需要生物工程的融合，并遵循一套规定的生活规则、网络安全原则和化学工程工作流程。以固有信息技术为基础的生物安全将能够为任何工程底盘单元或底盘单元联盟开发可扩展的主动保护措施和被动遏制策略。使用网络安全原则将使生物工程师和相关利益攸关方能够定义和建立下一代生物安全系统的标准和协议，此外还将为反复改进生物安全系统准备和进行渗透测试。该行动计划将通过部署合成决策、合成记忆和互补工程部件来设计、建造和测试生物安全的递增迭代，从而促进受使用启发的研究。对下一代生物安全影响的评估将通过包括安全专家、政策制定者、行业合作伙伴和国家组织在内的联合生产者联盟来实现。此外，这项研究计划将用于开展旨在促进融合研究的创新教育和培训活动。这项研究的社会影响将是多方面的，旨在减少与使用工程生物系统相关的焦虑，增加与国家安全相关的生物安全措施，并解决联邦机构改善遏制措施以提高生物安全的普遍兴趣。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Biotechnologies include a variety of technologies that improve the quality of life for billions of people worldwide. Contemporary biotechnologies often use living systems or living materials – typically in the form of an engineered cell – used to treat or diagnose disease, manufacture biofuels, or produce foods or dietary supplements. These could be thought of as biological assets. Biological security is a process that is used to prevent the unwanted release or capture of a given biological asset, especially if this asset is potentially pathogenic or harmful to the environment. Current approaches to biological security rely primarily on restricting physical access: for instance, the biological assets are confined in high bio-security labs. The current solution lacks any measures to prevent the unwanted proliferation of the biological material once the asset has breached its restricted environment. This is the equivalent of protecting your data by having your cell phone unprotected by a password, but storing it in a locked drawer. Your data is protected, as long as the phone remains locked. However, anybody getting physical possession of the phone will be able to use it and access your data. Similarly, with the current biosecurity approach, anybody can use the biological asset if they get access to it. The objective of this research is to develop bio-security measures that are inherently embedded in the biotechnology asset, much like the embedded password authentication on your phone. This embedded security prevents someone from accessing your data even if they have physical possession of the phone. The successful completion of this research will result in a paradigm shift in biological security and security protocols. In addition to dramatically improving containment and asset protection, the resulting technologies will increase public confidence in the use of engineered biological systems. The objective of this research is to transition biological security from an operational technology platform to a novel biologically intrinsic informational technology platform. To accomplish this will require the convergence of biological engineering informed by a prescribed set of rules of life, cybersecurity principles, and chemical engineering workflows. Biosecurity predicated on intrinsic informational technology will enable the development of scalable active protection measures and passive containment strategies for any engineered chassis cell or consortium of chassis cells. The use of cybersecurity principles will enable biological engineers and related stakeholders to define and establish the standards and protocols for next-generation biosecurity systems, in addition to staging and conducting penetration tests for the iterative improvement of biological security systems. This plan of action will facilitate use-inspired research via deploying synthetic-decision making and synthetic memory and complementary engineered parts to design, build, and test ascending iterations of biosecurity. Assessment of the impact of next-generation biosecurity will be achieved via a consortium of co-producers that include security specialists, policy makers, industrial partners, and national organizations. In addition, this research program will be used to develop innovative education and training activities aimed at fostering convergent research. The societal impact of this research will be many-fold and is aimed at reducing the anxiety associated with the use of engineer biological systems, increased biosecurity measures that are of interest to national security, and addressing a general interest in improving containment measures from federal institutions to improve biosafety.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.