BiosecurityPromise and Peril: Dual-Use Research in the Life Sciences

Published 29 October 2021

Advances in the life sciences and technology are making important contributions to improving global health. Transformative developments in many fields, however, can also pose risks to global health. It is thus only prudent to assess the potential adverse consequences of choosing particular technological pathways and potentially deleterious applications of technologies.

Advances in the life sciences and technology are making important contributions to improving global health. New scientific insights that are translated into technologies which are assimilated by innovative processes to play a crucial role in advancing knowledge and addressing critical societal challenges.

Pandora Report notes, however, that transformative developments in many fields can also pose risks to global health. It is thus only prudent to assess the potential adverse consequences of choosing particular technological pathways and potentially deleterious applications of technologies.

Dual-use research of concern (DURC) is defined as life science research which is intended for benefit but which might be misapplied to do harm. A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) – titled Emerging Technologies and Dual-Use Concerns: A Horizon Scan for Global Public Health — shares the results of an international horizon-scanning exercise, in which a group of experts, from a range of disciplines, undertook a broad examination of scientific and technological developments which could give rise to concern over the next two decades.

They identified fifteen priorities, including the development of a Global Guidance Framework to Harness the Responsible Use of the Life Sciences. George Mason University Biodefense program director Dr. Gregory Koblentz serves on the WHO’s advisory board of independent, international experts which are contributing to the development of this framework.

Pandora Reportnotes that WHO activities on the Responsible Use of the Life Sciences intend to increase awareness and provide tools to exploit the benefits and constrain the risks stemming from dual use life sciences and technologies. WHO works with member states and relevant stakeholders to promote responsible science and establish mechanisms for adopting practices which support safe, secure, and responsible life sciences.

WHO urges member states and stakeholders to better prepare for a changing world, to accelerate and harness the gains from emerging technologies and innovation while monitoring the risks and challenges that might arise from these technologies.

Watch the WHO videos on responsible use in the life sciences  here and here.