This is a link post for the Biosecurity Fundamentals Curriculum
Core:
Advances in biotechnology
◦ How biology has changed | Tessa Alexanian | EA Global: San Francisco 2018 (10 mins)
◦ The second decade of synthetic biology: 2010–2020 (20 mins)
◦ Benefits and Risks of Biotechnology
▪ “What are the tools of biotechnology?” section (15 mins)
◦ Point of View: Bioengineering horizon scan 2020
▪ Scan through Table 1 in this paper, and spend (10 mins) exploring any points of interest
◦ https://projects.igem.org/
▪ Spend (20 mins) exploring the project page. Read through the wikis and results page of the Grand prize-winning teams.
▪ Usually, iGEM projects are completed under 6 months by undergrads with relatively little guidance (sometimes postgrads, sometimes high schoolers)
Information Hazards
◦ Article on information hazards in biotechnology (30 mins)
◦ Optional refreshers:
▪ What are information hazards? - EA Forum (10 mins)
▪ Information hazards: a very simple typology - EA Forum (5 mins)
Optional:
Biotechnology
◦ Synthetic biology 2020–2030: six commercially-available products that are changing our world
◦ How To Grow (almost) Anything 2021
◦ Learn from DIY Biologists
◦ Molecular biology at the cutting edge: A review on CRISPR/CAS9 gene editing for undergraduates
◦ Concerning RNA-guided gene drives for the alteration of wild populations (Very clear introduction of the relevant basic science)
◦ A transatlantic perspective on 20 emerging issues in biological engineering
◦ BBC Radio 4 - Apocalypse How, Death by DNA
Information Hazards
◦ Inoculating science against potential pandemics and information hazards
◦ Original paper: Information hazards: A typology of potential harms from knowledge
◦ Bioinfohazards, Megan Crawford, Finan Adamson and Jeffrey Ladish, EA Forum post, September 2019.
◦ Slate Star Codex: The Virtue of Silence
