2024 Working Group
In 2024, an international working group brought together leading experts from synthetic biology, immunology, ecology, and related fields to evaluate the risks from mirror bacteria. The 30+ member working group represented researchers from 26 institutions, working in nine countries, from five continents.
Their assessment resulted in a Policy Forum article in Science that makes initial recommendations for the path forward. A detailed technical analysis authored by many of the members of the group (available through the Stanford University Digital Repository) informed these recommendations.
Co-chairs
Jack Szostak · University of Chicago
John Glass · J. Craig Venter Institute
Kate Adamala · University of Minnesota
Deepa Agashe · Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Yasmine Belkaid · Institut Pasteur
Daniela Bittencourt · EMBRAPA Brazil
Patrick Yizhi Cai · University of Manchester
Matthew Chang · National University of Singapore
Irene Chen · University of California, Los Angeles
George Church · Harvard University
Vaughn Cooper · University of Pittsburgh
Mark Davis · Stanford University
Neal Devaraj · University of California, San Diego
Drew Endy · Stanford University
Kevin Esvelt · Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Timothy Hand · University of Pittsburgh
Tom Inglesby · Johns Hopkins University
Farren Isaacs · Yale University
Wilmot James · Brown University
Jonathan Jones · Sainsbury Laboratory
Michael Kay · University of Utah
Richard Lenski · Michigan State University
Chenli Liu · Shenzhen Institute
Ruslan Medzhitov · Yale University
Matthew Nicotra · Johns Hopkins University
Sebastian Oehm · J. Craig Venter Institute
Jaspreet Pannu · Stanford University
David Relman · Stanford University
Petra Schwille · Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
James Smith · J. Craig Venter Institute
Hiroaki Suga · University of Tokyo
Nick Talbot · Sainsbury Laboratory
James Tiedje · Michigan State University
Craig Venter · J. Craig Venter Institute
Greg Winter · University of Cambridge
Weiwen Zhang · Tianjin University
Xin-Guang Zhu · Chinese Academy of Sciences
Maria Zuber · Massachusetts Institute of Technology