Vice President, Global Biological Policy and Programs
Expertise Biosecurity
Jaime Yassif serves as Vice President of NTI Global Biological Policy and Programs (NTI | bio). In this role she oversees NTI | bio’s work to reduce global catastrophic biological risks, strengthen biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, and drive progress in advancing global health security.
Prior to this, Dr. Yassif served as a Program Officer at the Open Philanthropy Project, where she led the initiative on Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness. In this role, she recommended and managed approximately $40 million in biosecurity grants, which rebuilt the field and supported work in several key areas, including: development of new biosecurity programming at several leading think tanks; cultivation of new talent through biosecurity leadership development programs; initiation of new biosecurity work in China and India; establishment of the Global Health Security Index; development of the Clade X tabletop exercise; and the emergence of a new discussion about global catastrophic biological risks.
Previously, Yassif was a Science and Technology Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Defense, where she focused on oversight of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program and East Asia security issues. During this period, she also worked on the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) at the Department of Health and Human Services, where she helped lay the groundwork for the WHO Joint External Evaluations and the GHSA Steering Group.
Yassif’s previous experience includes work with Connecting Organizations for Regional Disease Surveillance, Chatham House, NTI, the Federation of American Scientists and the Tsinghua University Institute for International Studies.
She holds a Biophysics Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, an MA in Science and Security from the King’s College London War Studies Department, and a BA in Biology from Swarthmore College.
Response by NTI to the U.S. government issued request for information (RFI) related to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan outlined by President Donald Trump’s January 2025 Executive Order.
This essay collection is designed to encourage the exploration and identification of potential solutions to disincentivize states from developing or using biological weapons. The goal of this collection is to bridge theory and practical policy-relevant approaches to develop new approaches to invigorate international efforts to reduce biological threats.
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with the life sciences offers tremendous potential benefits to society, but advances in AI biodesign tools also pose significant risks of misuse, with the potential for global consequences.
Improving epidemic and pandemic preparedness and strengthening biosecurity in Africa.
Facilitating international governance to reduce biosecurity risks at the convergence of AI and the life sciences.
Strengthening AI governance to safeguard AI-enabled tools for engineering living systems from misuse.
Incorporating biosecurity reviews into bioscience and biotechnology funding processes.
Establishing stronger norms and practices to prevent accidents, misuse, and other adverse outcomes of life science research
Past Project Rapidly assessing origins of high-consequence global biological events
Establishing an international Common Mechanism for DNA Synthesis Screening
Safeguarding modern bioscience and biotechnology so it can advance and flourish safely and responsibly
Preventing global catastrophic biological risks (GCBRS)
Advances in biotechnology outpace national governments’ ability to provide needed oversight to prevent accidents or deliberate misuse of dangerous biological agents.
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