Abstract

Dr. Todd Kuiken is a Senior Research Scholar at the Genetic Engineering & Society Center at North Carolina State University. Prior to that, he was a Senior Program Associate with the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Wilson Center where he was the principal investigator on the Wilson Center’s Synthetic Biology Project. This involved numerous projects evaluating and designing new research and governance strategies to proactively address the biosafety, biosecurity and environmental risks associated with synthetic biology.

Todd is currently working with Dan Grushkin, Director of the New York-based community lab GenSpace, on a project to ensure safety within the rapidly expanding community of amateur biologists and the growing network of community laboratories. The initiative is analyzing and developing programs around the potential biosafety and biosecurity threats associated with such a diffuse community and he is currently on a tour of spaces across the globe.