NTI Launches NTI | bio Advisory Group

NTI’s
recently expanded Global Biological Policy and Programs (NTI | bio) is
launching a high-level advisory group this week.  The group—chaired by former commissioner of
the Food and Drug Administration Margaret Hamburg, M.D., an NTI board member who now serves as foreign secretary of the National
Academy of Medicine—will provide strategic guidance on the program’s effort to
reduce global biological risks.

Advisory
group members include:

• John Brownstein, Ph.D., Chief Innovation
  Officer, Boston Children’s Hospital
• R. Alta Charo, J.D., Warren P.
  Knowles Professor of Law and Bioethics, University of Wisconsin
• Gerald R. Fink, Ph.D., Member, Whitehead Institute,
  Professor of Genetics, MIT
• Tore Godal, M.D., Ph.D., Special
  Advisor on Global Health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway
• Avril Haines, J.D., Senior Research
  Scholar, Columbia University, former Deputy National Security Advisor to
  President Barack Obama
• Jeremy Konyndyk, MSFS, Senior Policy
  Fellow, Center for Global Development, former Director of the USAID Office of
  Foreign Disaster Assistance
• John Nkengasong, Ph.D., Director,
  Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
• David A. Relman, M.D., Stanford
  University, Co-director of the Center for International Security and
  Cooperation
• Reshma Shetty, Ph.D., Co-Founder,
  Ginkgo Bioworks
• Dr John-Erik Stig Hansen, M.D., DMSc, Director
  of the Centre for Biosecurity and Biopreparedness, Denmark
• Renee Wegrzyn, Ph.D., Program Manager,
  Biological Technologies Office (BTO), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  (DARPA).

The inaugural
meeting of the NTI | bio Advisory Group will be held at NTI’s offices on
Thursday, June 14.  

“We deeply appreciate the time,
expertise, and confidence that this esteemed group is giving us, as NTI expands
our biosecurity initiative,” said NTI Co-chair and CEO Ernest J. Moniz. “We
look forward to working together on the steps required to reduce biological
risks and improve global health security.”  

NTI has addressed biosecurity issues
since its founding in 2001. Last year, NTI | bio initiated a significant
expansion, thanks to generous support from the Open Philanthropy Project,  which is allowing NTI to develop new
initiatives to curb global catastrophic biological risks, catalyze
international biosecurity norms and innovation, enhance biosurveillance for
emerging threats, and advocate for measurable biosecurity commitments as an
integral component of the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA). The GHSA is a
partnership of nearly 50 states, international organizations, and NGOs to help
create a world safe from infectious disease threats and to bring together
nations to make new, concrete commitments, and to elevate global health
security as a national leaders-level priority. NTI | bio is led by Elizabeth Cameron, Ph.D., vice president for Global
Biological Policy and Programs.

NTI
works to protect our lives, environment, and quality of life now and for future
generations. We work to prevent catastrophic attacks with weapons of mass
destruction and disruption (WMDD)—nuclear, biological, radiological, chemical,
and cyber. Founded in 2001 by former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn and philanthropist
Ted Turner who continue to serve as co-chairs, NTI is guided by a prestigious,
international board of directors. Ernest J. Moniz serves as chief executive
officer and co-chair; Des Browne is vice chair; and Joan Rohlfing serves as
president.

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