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• Life Sciences

We're working on groundbreaking research aiming to revolutionize the field of life sciences. We're solving some of the most important issues humanity faces with artificial intelligence, developing novel and unconventional computing structures, as well as mathematical and computational modeling.

AI transformers shed light on the brain’s mysterious astrocytes

• Foundation Models
• Machine Learning
• Natural Language Processing

IBM Research and JDRF continue to advance biomarker discovery research

An ai foundation model that learns the grammar of molecules.

• Accelerated Discovery
• Materials Discovery

How we react to smells could unlock how we form conscious thoughts

Crowdsourcing to trace cell lineages

Neural networks take titan-sized step toward t cell specificity prediction.

• See more of our work on Life Sciences

Publications

• James Hedrick
• Nathaniel Park
• MRS Spring Meeting 2024
• Sara Capponi
• Shangying Wang
• Biophysical Journal
• David Hathcock
• APS March Meeting 2024
• Katja-Sophia Csizi
• Emanuel Lörtscher
• Frontiers in Neuroscience
• Nicolas Deutschmann
• Marvin Alberts

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Computer science, healthcare and life sciences, mathematical sciences, physical sciences.

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Watch the boston globe today’s video on why north carolina is an attractive place to grow a life sciences business, including lower business costs and highly skilled workforce..

What are Life Sciences?

The simplest way to define life sciences is the study of living organisms and life processes..

At NCBiotech, we see it as science involving cells and their components, products and processes. Biology, medicine and agriculture are the most obvious examples of the discipline. However, in recent years, a convergence is underway that requires a multi-discipline approach. For example, biologists, chemists, and robotics and automation engineers will work together to develop new solutions.

What is Biotechnology?

Biotechnology, the most prominent component of the life sciences, is a toolbox that leverages our understanding of the natural sciences to create solutions for our world's problems. We use biotechnology to grow food to feed families and to make medicines and vaccines to fight diseases. We even turn to biotechnology for new innovations, such as leveraging plants to manufacture medicines and create alternative fuels. 

How Biotechnology Works

Biotechnology is grounded in the pure biological sciences of genetics, microbiology, animal cell cultures, molecular biology, embryology and cell biology. Biotechnology discoveries are intimately entwined in the life sciences industry sectors for development in agricultural biotechnology , biomanufacturing , human health , precision medicine and medical devices and diagnostics. For example, biomedical researchers use their understanding of genes, cells and proteins to pinpoint the differences between diseased and healthy cells. Once they discover how diseased cells are altered, researchers can more easily develop new medical diagnostics, devices and therapies to treat diseases and chronic conditions.

History of Biotech

Biotech has led us to the greatest innovations. Since 1984, North Carolina has nurtured its life sciences assets, firmly establishing itself as a leading U.S. life sciences hub characterized by steady growth of companies and talent statewide. Diverse, specialized subsectors, serve a variety of needs globally. The state pivoted from its deep roots in agriculture and furniture manufacturing to focus on biotechnology.  In the early 2000s, as more biotech products gained regulatory approval, companies expanded production capacity. This led to the state's growing demand for skilled biopharmaceutical manufacturing workers. Workforce development programs continue to fuel our state's talent pool. This talent pool, in turn, helps to recruit new life sciences companies and supports local company growth.

The Future of Biotech

Today, North Carolina is home to more than 830 life sciences companies, a talent pool of 75,000 skilled workers and an additional 2,500 companies that support the sector. According to the 2022 TEConomy Report , despite the COVID-19 pandemic and economic challenges, the state's life sciences growth has outpaced national growth, placing itself among the top-tier life sciences hubs. 

North Carolina has long invested in scientific infrastructure to fuel innovation. With three top-tier research universities, scientific innovations are seeding new spinouts and advancing technologies to the next level.  

Through our strengths in research and development, talent, training and scientific infrastructure, North Carolina will remain at the forefront of biotechnology and life sciences.

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Why Life Sciences?

What is the life sciences at harvard university.

Studying the life sciences will provide you with a foundation of scientific knowledge and ways of exploring the world.  The life sciences pervade so many aspects of our lives – from health care, to the environment, to debates about stem cell research and genetic testing.  While dramatic scientific progress has been made in recent decades, so much remains unknown.  In studying the life sciences at Harvard, you will engage with how we know what we know, and you will learn to think like a scientist.   You will have the opportunity to engage in original research, in world-class laboratories.  You will be part of a community of students with broad interests across the life sciences.  You will be supported in your explorations by a team of dedicated advisors.

Life Sciences

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) at Harvard University provides exceptional opportunities for study across the depth and breadth of the life sciences through the Harvard Integrated Life Sciences (HILS) federation. The HILS federation comprises 14 Ph.D. programs of study across four Harvard faculties—Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Dental Medicine. HILS offers flexibility, including options to take courses, do laboratory rotations, and even choose a dissertation advisor from across the HILS federation, subject to specific program requirements and lab availability.

Board on Life Sciences

Publications.

Discovering the Promise of RNA

A new report from the National Academies provides a road map to develop the capacity within 15 years to sequence any RNA molecule from any biological system with all its modifications. Transforming our understanding of RNA could have impacts that span far beyond the biomedical sciences and health.

New Podcast: Alta Charo Considers the Ethics for Stem Cells and CRISPR

Workshop: Artificial Intelligence and Automated Laboratories for Biotechnology: Leveraging Opportunities and Mitigating Risks

Interactive Resources

Scientist’s Guide For Countering Misinformation

This how-to guide provides practical steps that scientists can take to assess mis- or disinformation, determine whether and how they should address it, and effectively communicate the corrective information they develop.

Standing Committees

• Transformative Science and Technology for the Department of Defense: Standing Committee and Seminar Series
• Standing Committee on Advances and National Security Implications of Transdisciplinary Biotechnology
• Response and Resilient Recovery Strategic Science Initiative: A Rapid, Multidisciplinary Scientific Capability for Scenario Analysis
• Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats

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May 23, 2024

Ongoing Activities

• International Bioeconomy Roundtable
• Roundtable on Biomedical Engineering Materials and Applications
• National Science, Technology, and Security Roundtable
• Forum on Regenerative Medicine
• Roundtable on Systemic Change in Undergraduate STEM Education

Current Projects, Workshops, & Activities

• Assessing and Navigating Biosecurity Concerns and Benefits of Artificial Intelligence Use in the Life Sciences
• Biotechnology Capabilities for National Security Needs--Leveraging Advances in Transdisciplinary Biotechnology
• Enhancing Biotechnology Innovation and Applications for National Security – Meetings of Experts
• Current State of Research, Development, and Stockpiling of Smallpox Medical Countermeasures
• Costs and Approaches for Municipal Solid Waste Recycling Programs

Past Projects, Workshops, & Activities

• Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics, Fourteenth Round
• Developing Wearable Technologies to Advance Understanding of Precision Environmental Health – A Workshop
• Advances in Multimodal Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Environmental and Biomedical Data Integration-A Workshop

Across multiple domains of science, engineering, and medicine, excitement is growing about the potential of digital twins to transform scientific research, industrial practices, and many aspects of daily life. A digital twin couples computational models with a physical counterpart to create a system that is dynamically updated through bidirectional data flows as conditions change. Going beyond traditional simulation and modeling, digital twins could enable improved medical decision-making at the individual patient level, predictions of future weather and climate conditions over longer timescales, and safer, more efficient engineering processes. However, many challenges remain before these applications can be realized.

This report identifies the foundational research and resources needed to support the development of digital twin technologies. The report presents critical future research priorities and an interdisciplinary research agenda for the field, including how federal agencies and researchers across domains can best collaborate.

Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins

At the request of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, the National Academies convened a committee to examine lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and mpox multi-country outbreak to inform an evaluation of the state of smallpox research, development, and stockpiling of medical countermeasures (MCM). In the resulting report, the committee presents findings and conclusions that may inform U.S. Government investment decisions in smallpox MCM readiness, as well as the official U.S. position on the disposition of live viral collections at future World Health Assembly meetings.

Future State of Smallpox Medical Countermeasures

Concerted efforts to deepen understanding of RNA modifications and their role in living systems hold the potential to advance human health, improve crop yields, and address other pressing societal challenges. RNA, which carries the information encoded by DNA to the places where it is needed, is amazingly diverse and dynamic. RNA is processed and modified through natural biological pathways, giving rise to hundreds, in some cases thousands, of distinct RNA molecules for each gene, thereby diversifying genetic information. RNA modifications are known to be pivotal players in nearly all biological processes, and their dysregulation has been implicated in a wide range of human diseases and disorders. Yet, our knowledge of RNA modifications remains incomplete, hindered by current technological limitations. Existing methods cannot discover all RNA modifications, let alone comprehensively sequence them on every RNA molecule. Nonetheless, what is known about RNA modifications has already been leveraged in the development of vaccines that helped saved millions of lives worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. RNA modifications also have applications beyond health, for example, enhancing agricultural productivity.

Charting a Future for Sequencing RNA and Its Modifications: A New Era for Biology and Medicine calls for a focused, large-scale effort to accelerate technological innovation to harness the full potential of RNA modifications to address pressing societal challenges in health, agriculture, and beyond. This report assesses the scientific and technological breakthroughs, workforce, and infrastructure needs to sequence RNA and its modifications, and ultimately understand the roles RNA modifications play in biological processes and disease. It proposes a roadmap of innovation that will make it possible for any RNA from any biological system to be sequenced end-to-end with all of its modifications - a capability that could lead to more personalized and targeted treatments and instigate transformative changes across various sectors beyond health and medicine.

Charting a Future for Sequencing RNA and Its Modifications: A New Era for Biology and Medicine

The National Academies hosted a virtual public workshop series in November 2023 to determine the health research and surveillance priorities related to the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment and hazardous material release that occurred on February 3, 2023. Discussions explored potential health impacts and lessons learned from the incident, focusing on research questions specific to affected communities in East Palestine and surrounding areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Special care was taken for present and future public health response planning to be responsive to community feedback, questions, and concerns across hazards, exposures, risks, and health impacts.

Public Health Research and Surveillance Priorities from the East Palestine Train Derailment: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The Committee on Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics, Fourteenth Round evaluated submissions received in response to a Request for Proposals for Biomolecular Simulation Time on Anton 2, a supercomputer designed and built by D. E. Shaw Research (DESRES). Over the past 13 years, DESRES has made an Anton or Anton 2 system housed at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center available to the non-commercial research community, based on the advice of previous committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. As in those prior rounds, the goal of the fourteenth RFP for simulation time on Anton 2 is to continue to facilitate breakthrough research in the study of biomolecular systems by providing a massively parallel system specially designed for molecular dynamics simulations. The program seeks to continue to support research that addresses important and high impact questions demonstrating a clear need for Antons special capabilities. This document describes the work and transmits the decisions of the Committee.

Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics: Fourteenth Round

The presence of virus particles and other contaminants provides unique challenges in indoor air environments, particularly if these contaminants can infect people through respiratory routes. These challenges were emphasized during the COVID-19 pandemic because of the documented human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through the air, but they also apply to other airborne pathogens. The Environmental Health Matters Initiative of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a three-part series on Indoor Air Management of Airborne Pathogens to consider the state of knowledge about building management, ventilation, and air cleaning for respiratory airborne pathogens; discuss experiences with management of indoor spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically of schools and public transportation; and suggest mitigation strategies to be adopted to make these spaces safer. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the series.

Management of Indoor Air and Airborne Pathogens: Proceedings of a Workshop Series–in Brief

The field of quantum information science (QIS) has witnessed a dramatic rise in scientific research activities in the 21st century as excitement has grown about its potential to revolutionize communications and computing, strengthen encryption, and enhance quantum sensing, among other applications. While, historically, QIS research has been dominated by the field of physics and computer engineering, this report explores how chemistry - in particular the use of molecular qubits - could advance QIS. In turn, researchers are also examining how QIS could be used to solve problems in chemistry, for example, to facilitate new drug and material designs, health and environmental monitoring tools, and more sustainable energy production.

Recognizing that QIS could be a disruptive technology with the potential to create groundbreaking products and new industries, Advancing Chemistry and Quantum Information Science calls for U.S. leadership to build a robust enterprise to facilitate and support research at the intersection of chemistry and QIS. This report identifies three key research areas: design and synthesis of molecular qubit systems, measurement and control of molecular quantum systems, and experimental and computational approaches for scaling qubit design and function. Advancing Chemistry and Quantum Information Science recommends that the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and other funding agencies should support multidisciplinary and collaborative research in QIS, the development of new instrumentation, and facilities, centralized and open-access databases, and efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive chemical workforce.

Advancing Chemistry and Quantum Information Science: An Assessment of Research Opportunities at the Interface of Chemistry and Quantum Information Science in the United States

The digital twin is an emerging technology that builds on the convergence of computer science, mathematics, engineering, and the life sciences. Digital twins have the potential to revolutionize atmospheric and climate sciences in particular, as they could be used, for example, to create global-scale interactive models of Earth to predict future weather and climate conditions over longer timescales.

On February 1-2, 2023, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a public, virtual workshop to discuss characterizations of digital twins within the context of atmospheric, climate, and sustainability sciences and to identify methods for their development and use. Workshop panelists presented varied definitions and taxonomies of digital twins and highlighted key challenges as well as opportunities to translate promising practices to other fields. The second in a three-part series, this evidence-gathering workshop will inform a National Academies consensus study on research gaps and future directions to advance the mathematical, statistical, and computational foundations of digital twins in applications across science, medicine, engineering, and society.

Opportunities and Challenges for Digital Twins in Atmospheric and Climate Sciences: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

The digital twin is an emerging technology that builds on the convergence of computer science, mathematics, engineering, and the life sciences. Digital twins have potential across engineering domains, from aeronautics to renewable energy. On February 7 and 9, 2023, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a public, virtual workshop to discuss characterizations of digital twins within the context of engineering and to identify methods for their development and use. Panelists highlighted key technical challenges and opportunities across use cases, as well as areas ripe for research and development and investment. The third in a three-part series, this evidence-gathering workshop will inform a National Academies consensus study on research gaps and future directions to advance the mathematical, statistical, and computational foundations of digital twins in applications across science, medicine, engineering, and society.

Opportunities and Challenges for Digital Twins in Engineering: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

The rapid proliferation of wearable devices that gather data on physical activity and physiology has become commonplace across various sectors of society. Concurrently, the development of advanced wearables and sensors capable of detecting a multitude of compounds presents new opportunities for monitoring environmental exposure risks. Wearable technologies are additionally showing promise in disease prediction, detection, and management, thereby offering potential advancements in the interdisciplinary fields of both environmental health and biomedicine.

To gain insight into this burgeoning field, on June 1 and 2, 2023, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a 2-day virtual workshop titled Developing Wearable Technologies to Advance Understanding of Precision Environmental Health. Experts from government, industry, and academia convened to discuss emerging applications and the latest advances in wearable technologies. The workshop aimed to explore the potential of wearables in capturing, monitoring, and predicting environmental exposures and risks to inform precision environmental health.

Developing Wearable Technologies to Advance Understanding of Precision Environmental Health: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, and biomedical big data holds promise to transform understanding of human health and disease. Driven by the increasing availability and ability to generate, collect, and analyze environmental and biomedical data along with advanced computing power, AI and machine learning (ML) applications are rapidly developing in research and health. To explore opportunities for leveraging emerging developments in AI and ML to advance multimodal data integration, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop titled Advances in Multimodal Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Environmental and Biomedical Data Integration on June 14-15, 2023. The workshop focused on recent developments in AI and other data-driven approaches to integrate biomedical and environmental health data; the exploration of promising applications in human health and disease; and the ethical, social, and policy implications and challenges of health data collection and integration. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions of the workshop.

Advances in Multimodal Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Environmental and Biomedical Data Integration: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

One strategy cells use for regulation is modifying proteins, DNA, and RNA to control their structure, function, and stability. For years, research has focused on the reversible modifications to proteins and DNA. However, RNA can also be highly modified, and more than 170 types of modification to RNA have been identified so far. Current methods for mapping and sequencing RNA and its modifications - also known as the epitranscriptome - are limited, partly because available sequencing technologies can detect only a small number of them. This limits the understanding of different molecular processes and leaves a gap in knowledge related to human diseases and disorders.

To address these limitations and develop a roadmap for the sequencing of RNA with the epitranscriptome, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened an ad hoc committee to provide a consensus report. A workshop held on March 14-15, 2023 was one part of an information-gathering effort by the committee and is summarized in this proceedings.

Toward Sequencing and Mapping of RNA Modifications: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

In 2023, the National Academies held a series of facilitated workshops to gather information on progress to date on projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Understanding the Rules of Life (URoL) program. A fundamental goal of the URoL program is to identify the causal, predictive relationships that drive how life functions—a concept articulated as the "rules of life." Principal investigators of the URoL program shared findings from their research and how those findings might contribute to identifying rules of life that are generalizable across fields and scales. Participants also discussed how they have incorporated multidisciplinary, systems-level approaches into their work. This booklet highlights the program's focus areas and reach, major scientific breakthroughs, and lessons for research and education across scientific disciplines. This booklet is intended for policy and lay audiences interested in learning more about the goals and opportunities of NSF's URoL program.

Understanding the Rules of Life Program: Scientific Advancements and Future Opportunities

The ultimate goal of planetary protection for outbound missions is to prevent harmful contamination that would inhibit future measurements designed to search for evidence of the existence or evolution of extraterrestrial life. Preventing harmful contamination is achieved by following specific guidelines based on existing scientific knowledge about the destination and the type of mission. This report responds to NASA's request for a study on planetary protection categorization of missions to small bodies, including whether there are particular populations of small bodies for which contamination of one object in the population would not be likely to have a tangible effect on the opportunities for scientific investigation using other objects in the population. In addressing NASA's request, the authoring committee considered surface composition of target bodies and their importance for prebiotic chemistry, along with size of the small-body populations, the current state of knowledge on the types of objects, the likelihood of a future scientific mission returning to any specific object, active object surface processes, and the size.

Planetary Protection Considerations for Missions to Solar System Small Bodies: Report Series—Committee on Planetary Protection

In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) established a five-year program on Understanding the Rules of Life (URoL) to identify generalizable rules that govern biological systems at micro and macro levels. At the request of NSF, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a series of workshops to explore the achievements of the URoL program. Presenters and participants discussed integration of multi-disciplinary, systems-level approaches, broader implications for studying highly complex systems, future scientific questions and future societal needs, and the production of generalizable rules that apply to different fields and scales. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Reflections on the National Science Foundation's Understanding the Rules of Life Program: Proceedings of a Workshop Series

On November 14 and 15, 2022, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a two-day workshop under the auspices of the National Science, Technology, and Security Roundtable to assess the state of the U.S. research enterprise in a time of increasing global competition. The workshop also featured discussion of the challenges confronting researchers as they seek to ensure the vitality of research and innovation in America, foster increased international scientific research cooperation, and simultaneously counter illicit foreign interference that threatens national security interests. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Openness, International Engagement, and the Federally Funded Science and Technology Research Enterprise: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Artificial intelligence (AI), facial recognition, and other advanced computational and statistical techniques are accelerating advancements in the life sciences and many other fields. However, these technologies and the scientific developments they enable also hold the potential for unintended harm and malicious exploitation. To examine these issues and to discuss practices for anticipating and preventing the misuse of advanced data analytics and biological data in a global context, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened two virtual workshops on November 15, 2022, and February 9, 2023. The workshops engaged scientists from the United States, South Asia, and Southeast Asia through a series of presentations and scenario-based exercises to explore emerging applications and areas of research, their potential benefits, and the ethical issues and security risks that arise when AI applications are used in conjunction with biological data. This publication highlights the presentations and discussions of the workshops.

Engaging Scientists to Prevent Harmful Exploitation of Advanced Data Analytics and Biological Data: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

The microbial communities that reside within the human gut have profound effects on our health. Recent research has revealed that their sphere of influence extends well beyond their long-recognized role in digestion and nutrient absorption to include interactions with the immune system, the brain, and other systems. New biotechnologies are tapping into interconnections with commensal microbes along the gut-brain axis, opening exciting opportunities to prevent and treat neurological and other disorders, discover new therapeutic modalities, and improve health throughout the lifespan.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop on Interactions of Biotechnology with Human Physiology and Function on December 15-16, 2022, organized under the auspices of the National Academies Standing Committee on Biotechnology Capabilities and National Security Needs. Presenters and attendees from government, academia, and industry gathered for discussions and presentations addressing recent research into the connections and mediators along the gut-brain axis, key challenges and limitations in this research, transdisciplinary technologies being pursued for potential applications, and a vision for future developments in this field. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief provides a high-level overview of the event.

Interactions of Biotechnology with Human Physiology and Function Along the Gut-Brain Axis: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The digital twin (DT) is an emerging technology that builds on the convergence of computer science, mathematics, engineering, and the life sciences. Given the multiscale nature of biological structures and their environment, biomedical DTs can represent molecules, cells, tissues, organs, systems, patients, and populations and can include aspects from across the modeling and simulation ecosystem. DTs have the potential advance biomedical research with applications for personalized medicine, pharmaceutical development, and clinical trials.

On January 30, 2023, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop to discuss the definitions and taxonomy of DTs within the biomedical field, current methods and promising practices for DT development and use as various levels of complexity, key technical challenges and opportunities in the near and long term for DT development and use, and opportunities for translation of promising practices from other field and domains. Workshop panelists highlighted key challenges and opportunities for medical DTs at varying scales, including the varied visions and challenges for DTs, the trade-offs between embracing or simplifying complexity in DTs, the unique spatial and temporal considerations that arise, the diversity of models and data being used in DTs, the challenges with connecting data and models across scales, and implementation issues surrounding data privacy in DTs. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Opportunities and Challenges for Digital Twins in Biomedical Research: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Biohybrid materials and devices - which integrate both biological and engineered components - offer exciting opportunities to create new functionalities and support sustainability. Scientists and engineers are exploring biohybrid materials and devices for applications in a broad range of areas including robotics, health, manufacturing, architecture, and agriculture. To highlight emerging science and technology in this area and examine innovation drivers and barriers, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop, Biohybrid Materials and Technologies for Today and Tomorrow, January 12-13, 2023. Presenters and attendees from government, academia, and industry gathered in person and online to share examples of biohybrid technologies, identify potential research needs and opportunities, and discuss issues involved in translating this work into commercial markets and applications. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief provides a high-level overview of the event.

Biohybrid Materials and Technologies for Today and Tomorrow: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Rapid growth in the regenerative medicine field is driving increased demand for skilled workers, highlighting the importance of considering how to shape the requisite workforce. The National Academies Forum on Regenerative Medicine hosted a November 2022 workshop to better understand gaps in workforce development and potential solutions, skillsets and other attributes needed for success in regenerative medicine, and incentives and disincentives for expanding the workforce. The workshop was intended to serve as an opportunity to catalyze engagement and development of the regenerative medicine workforce by exploring possibilities to expand participation. This proceedings document summarizes workshop discussions.

Training the Regenerative Medicine Workforce for the Future: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Ecosystems form the foundation upon which society can survive and thrive, providing food, water, air, materials, and recreation. These connections between people and their environments are under stress from human-driven climate change, pollution, resource exploitation, and other actions that may have implications for public health. The integral connection between nature and human health is recognized and has been explored through different bodies of work; however, because of the breadth of this issue, many implications regarding public health are not well characterized. This has created a gap in understanding the interconnections between public health and ecosystem health systems and how ecosystem resiliency may affect public health.

To inform the development of a research agenda aimed at bridging the knowledge-to-action gap related to integrating public and ecological health to foster resilience, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop across three days that brought together interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners from the public health, natural resource management, and environmental protection communities to exchange knowledge, discuss critical gaps in understanding and practice, and identify promising research that could support the development of domestic and international policy and practice. Day 1 of the workshop, held on September 19, 2022, addressed the following question: What has been learned about how to integrate public health and nature into research, policy, and practice to foster resilience? Days 2 and 3, held on September 29 and 30, 2022, explored advancement opportunities in transdisciplinary and community-engaged scholarship to improve integration of public health and nature and inform policy and practice and opportunities to bridge the knowledge-to-action gap with strategies to translate knowledge into policy and practice. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Integrating Public and Ecosystem Health Systems to Foster Resilience: A Workshop to Identify Research to Bridge the Knowledge-to-Action Gap: Proceedings of a Workshop

As part of a multiyear project to promote a cooperative relationship between U.S. and Pakistani human and animal health and infectious disease experts, the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, together with the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, convened a bilateral workshop in Islamabad, Pakistan, to promote best practices in and improved communications, cooperation, and coordination among public, private, military, and animal health clinical laboratories in Pakistan. The workshop, "Strengthening and Sustaining a Network of Public and Animal Health Clinical Laboratories in Pakistan," was held on September 27-29, 2016.

Pakistani life science, public health, veterinary, and clinical laboratory experts, graduate students from Pakistani institutions of higher learning, and U.S. scientists/clinicians met at the workshop to explore questions facing human and animal health policy makers in Pakistan. This publication summarizes presentations and discussions of the workshop.

Strengthening and Sustaining a Network of Public and Animal Health Clinical Laboratories in Pakistan: Proceedings of a Joint Workshop

The use of living organisms and biological components in manufacturing processes is increasing across manufacturing sectors. However, biomanufacturing faces several bottlenecks and challenges to continued growth. To share practices and potential solutions, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop titled Successes and Challenges in Biomanufacturing on October 24-25, 2022. The workshop brought together biomanufacturing stakeholders across industry, academia, and government with expertise across diverse fields, including U.S.-based and international speakers. Discussions spanned the breadth of biomanufacturing contexts and applications, including bioindustrial and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief provides a high-level summary of the topics addressed at the workshop.

Successes and Challenges in Biomanufacturing: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Biological physics, or the physics of living systems, has emerged fully as a field of physics, alongside more traditional fields of astrophysics and cosmology, atomic, molecular and optical physics, condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, particle physics, and plasma physics. This new field brings the physicist's style of inquiry to bear on the beautiful phenomena of life. The enormous range of phenomena encountered in living systems - phenomena that often have no analog or precedent in the inanimate world - means that the intellectual agenda of biological physics is exceptionally broad, even by the ambitious standards of physics.

Physics of Life is the first decadal survey of this field, as part of a broader decadal survey of physics. This report communicates the importance of biological physics research; addresses what must be done to realize the promise of this new field; and provides guidance for informed decisions about funding, workforce, and research directions.

Physics of Life

This report evaluates submissions received in response to a Request for Proposals for Biomolecular Simulation Time on Anton 2, a supercomputer designed and built by D.E. Shaw Research (DESRES). Over the past 12 years, DERES has made an Anton or Anton 2 system housed at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center available to the non-commercial research community, based on the advice of previous committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. As in those prior rounds, the goal of the thirteenth Request for Proposals for simulation time on Anton 2 is to continue to facilitate breakthrough research in the study of biomolecular systems by providing a massively parallel system specially designed for molecular dynamics simulations. These capabilities allow multi-microsecond simulation timescales. The program seeks to continue to support research that addresses important and high impact questions demonstrating a clear need for the special capabilities of the Anton.

Report of the Committee on Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics: Thirteenth Round

Because of historic and ongoing discriminatory policies and practices, certain populations - namely people of color, Indigenous people, and low-income communities - disproportionately suffer from the adverse impacts of extreme weather and other disasters that are exacerbated by climate change. To examine actions that could help improve climate-related health outcomes in disproportionately impacted communities, the Environmental Health Matters Initiative, a program spanning all major units of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, convened a two-day workshop Communities, Climate Change, and Health Equity - State-Level Implementation on May 24 and 26, 2022. The workshop brought together representatives from state and federal agencies, universities, community-based organizations, state and national advocacy organizations, foundations, and private sector organizations. This publication highlights the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Communities, Climate Change, and Health Equity—State-Level Implementation: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Since March 2020, the standing committee has consistently generated real-time policy recommendations and paved the way for the National Academies to produce an unprecedented amount of timely, evidence-based guidance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This Annual Report summarizes the committee’s work in 2020 and highlights the short consensus study reports, rapid expert consultations, meetings, and affiliated activities conducted during the year.

Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats: Annual Report 2020

The wide-ranging portfolio of the standing committee’s work has illuminated many aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic and response efforts. This Annual Report summarizes the committee’s work in 2021 and highlights the short consensus study reports, rapid expert consultations, and meetings conducted during the year.

Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats: Annual Report 2021

Misinformation about outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics is a decades-old problem that has been exacerbated by the rise of the internet and the widespread use of social media. Some false claims may be addressed through sound scientific analysis, suggesting that scientists can help counter misinformation by providing evidence-based, scientifically defensible information that may discredit or refute these claims. This report explains how scientists can work collaboratively across scientific disciplines and sectors to identify and address inaccuracies that could fuel mis- and disinformation. Although the study focused on a scientific network primarily in Southeast Asia, it is relevant to scientists in other parts of the world. A companion "how-to-guide", available in print and in digital form, outlines practical steps that scientists can take to assess mis- or disinformation, determine whether and how they should address it, and effectively communicate the corrective information they develop.

Addressing Inaccurate and Misleading Information About Biological Threats Through Scientific Collaboration and Communication in Southeast Asia

The Forum on Regenerative Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a two-day virtual public workshop to address knowledge gaps in the understanding of promising approaches to manipulate the immune system and/or the regenerative medicine product to improve outcomes of tissue repair and regeneration in patients. The workshop, titled "Understanding the Role of the Immune System in Improving Tissue Regeneration," explored the role of the immune system in the success or failure of regenerative medicine therapies. Participants considered potential strategies to effectively "prepare" patients' immune systems to accept regenerative therapies and increase the likelihood of successful clinical outcomes and also discussed risks associated with modulating the immune system. This Proceedings of a Workshop highlights the presentations and discussions that occurred during the workshop.

Understanding the Role of the Immune System in Improving Tissue Regeneration: Proceedings of a Workshop

Recent advances in biotechnology and the life sciences have led to new and emerging paradigms for biological detection. For instance, technologies for analyzing brain activity are advancing rapidly and may soon find their way into a multitude of consumer electronics and medical devices. Other technologies are using biological or bio-inspired methods to analyze chemicals present in air, including those of biological origin, allowing the technologies to detect and sense compounds - such as disease biomarkers or industrial pollutants - with unprecedented speed and precision. What capabilities might these technologies unlock? What economic and societal drivers are influencing their development? What ethical, legal, and social issues do they raise? The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a virtual workshop on Cutting Edge Scientific Capabilities for Biological Detection on January 20, 21, and 28, 2022, to explore emerging technologies for biological detection and critical issues related to their development and use. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Cutting-Edge Scientific Capabilities for Biological Detection: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The digital age has transformed daily life and economies worldwide. While today's technologies store, compute, and transmit data at unprecedented volume and speed, there are potential applications for new paradigms of communication and information transmission. Harnessing biological processes and platforms could open new opportunities for durable and efficient data storage, powerful computational capabilities, and innovative approaches to sensing and peer-to-peer information transmission. Application of these technologies may also lead to new policy, security, and ethics challenges. To examine how cutting-edge biotechnologies and research could enable these new approaches, as well as the societal impacts they might have, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a virtual workshop on Using Biology for Communication and Information Transmission on January 20-21, 2022. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Using Biology for Communication and Information Transmission: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has played a key role over the past several decades in advancing understanding of Earth's systems by funding research on atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, geologic, polar, ecosystem, social, and engineering-related processes. Today, however, those systems are being driven like never before by human technologies and activities. Our understanding has struggled to keep pace with the rapidity and magnitude of human-driven changes, their impacts on human and ecosystem sustainability and resilience, and the effectiveness of different pathways to address those challenges.

Given the urgency of understanding human-driven changes, NSF will need to sustain and expand its efforts to achieve greater impact. The time is ripe to create a next-generation Earth systems science initiative that emphasizes research on complex interconnections and feedbacks between natural and social processes. This will require NSF to place an increased emphasis on research inspired by real-world problems while maintaining their strong legacy of curiosity driven research across many disciplines – as well as enhance the participation of social, engineering, and data scientists, and strengthen efforts to include diverse perspectives in research.

Next Generation Earth Systems Science at the National Science Foundation

A growing body of evidence has sounded the alarm that the biodiversity that supports and sustains life on Earth is at risk. Habitat destruction, resource exploitation, and climate change are among the many stressors that have put 1 million species under threat of extinction and sharply reduced the populations of many plant and animal species. While researchers and global leaders ramp up efforts to address this existential threat, the significance of species loss and the value of preserving biodiversity is not widely recognized by policy makers or the public. This booklet, produced by an international committee of experts, provides a publicly accessible overview of the many dimensions of biodiversity and why it's vital to the health of all life on the planet. The booklet also examines the causes of biodiversity loss and presents actions that can be taken from the individual to the global level to stop this decline.

Biodiversity at Risk: Today's Choices Matter

As the effects of climate change become more widespread and significant, communities least able to respond are bearing the largest burden. In the United States, communities disadvantaged by a legacy of racial segregation and environmental injustice struggle with disparate health outcomes, are vulnerable to the effects of climate change (e.g., severe flooding in low-lying areas and extreme heat in urban neighborhoods), and lack sufficient resources to recover from and rebuild for resilience against future events.

On October 12 and 14, 2021, the 2-day virtual workshop "Communities, Climate Change, and Health Equity - A New Vision" brought together environmental health experts, resilience practitioners, climate scientists, and people with lived experience to discuss the disproportionate impact of climate change on communities experiencing health disparities and environmental injustice. During the workshop, the first in a four-part series, 41 speakers shared their perspectives on the topic and suggested specific actions that decision-makers can take to address the intersecting crises of climate change and health inequity. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Communities, Climate Change, and Health Equity: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The Antarctic's unique environment and position on the globe make it a prime location to gain insights into how Earth and the universe operate. This report assesses National Science Foundation (NSF) progress in addressing three priority research areas identified in a 2015 National Academies report: (1) understanding the linkages between ice sheets and sea-level rise, including both a focus on current rates of ice sheet change and studies of past major ice sheet retreat episodes; (2) understanding biological adaptations to the extreme and changing Antarctic environment; and (3) establishing a next-generation cosmic microwave background (CMB) program, partly located in Antarctica, to study the origins of the universe.

NSF has made important progress understanding the impacts of current ice sheet change, particularly through studies focused on the ice sheet and ocean interactions driving ongoing ice mass loss at the Thwaites Glacier and Amundsen Sea region in West Antarctica. Less progress has been made on studies of past major ice sheet retreat episodes. Progress is also strong on CMB research to understand the origins of the universe. Progress has lagged on understanding biological adaptations, in part because of limited community organization and collaboration toward the priority. To accelerate progress during the second half of the initiative, NSF could issue specific calls for proposals, develop strategies to foster collaborations and partnerships, and commission a transparent review of logistical capacity to help illuminate strategies and priorities for addressing resource constraints. Such efforts would also help optimize science and proposal development in an environment of inherently constrained logistics.

Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research

Since the 1980s, national and international planetary protection policies have sought to avoid contamination by terrestrial organisms that could compromise future investigations regarding the origin or presence of Martian life. Over the last decade, the number of national space agencies planning, participating in, and undertaking missions to Mars has increased, and private-sector enterprises are engaged in activities designed to enable commercial missions to Mars. The nature of missions to Mars is also evolving to feature more diversity in purposes and technologies. As missions to Mars increase and diversify, national and international processes for developing planetary protection measures recognize the need to consider the interests of scientific discovery, commercial activity, and human exploration. The implications of these changes for planetary protection should be considered in the context of how much science has learned about Mars, and about terrestrial life, in recent years.

At the request of NASA, this report identifies criteria for determining locations on Mars potentially suitable for landed robotic missions that satisfy less stringent bioburden requirements, which are intended to manage the risk of forward contamination.

Report Series: Committee on Planetary Protection: Evaluation of Bioburden Requirements for Mars Missions

The U.S. medical countermeasures (MCMs) enterprise is interconnected, complex, and dynamic. It includes public and private entities that develop and manufacture new and existing MCMs, ensure procurement, storage, and distribution of MCMs, and administer, monitor, and evaluate MCMs. The interagency group known as the Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise (PHEMCE) is the nation's sole coordinating body, responsible for ensuring end-to-end MCM preparedness and response.

Ensuring an Effective Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise provides recommendations from an expert committee for a re-envisioned PHEMCE. Four priority areas of improvement emerged from committee deliberations: (1) articulating PHEMCE's mission and role and explicating the principles guiding PHEMCE's operating principles and processes, (2) revising PHEMCE operations and processes, (3) collaborating more effectively with external public and private partners, and (4) navigating legal and policy issues.

Ensuring an Effective Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise

This report evaluates submissions received in response to a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Biomolecular Simulation Time on Anton 2, a supercomputer designed and built by D. E. Shaw Research (DESRES). Over the past 11 years, DESRES has made an Anton or Anton 2 system housed at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center available to the non-commercial research community, based on the advice of previous committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The goal of the twelfth RFP for simulation time on Anton 2 is to continue to facilitate breakthrough research in the study of biomolecular systems by providing a massively parallel system specially designed for molecular dynamics simulations. These capabilities allow multi-microsecond simulation timescales. The program seeks to continue to support research that addresses important and high impact questions demonstrating a clear need for Anton's special capabilities.

Report of the Committee on Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics: Twelfth Round

Quantum concepts hold the potential to enable significant advances in sensing and imaging technologies that could be vital to the study of biological systems. The workshop Quantum Science Concepts in Enhancing Sensing and Imaging Technologies: Applications for Biology, held online March 8-10, 2021, was organized to examine the research and development needs to advance biological applications of quantum technology. Hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the event brought together experts working on state-of-the-art, quantum-enabled technologies and scientists who are interested in applying these technologies to biological systems. Through talks, panels, and discussions, the workshop facilitated a better understanding of the current and future biological applications of quantum-enabled technologies in fields such as microbiology, molecular biology, cell biology, plant science, mycology, and many others. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Quantum Science Concepts in Enhancing Sensing and Imaging Technologies: Applications for Biology: Proceedings of a Workshop

Pathogens are the cause of infectious diseases, but the environment can play an important role in influencing the conditions under which pathogens spread and cause harm. Understanding the complex interplay among people, pathogens, and the environment - broadly encompassing the chemical, biological, physical, and social surroundings - can lead to a more complete picture of where and how infectious diseases emerge, how they spread, and how to respond to outbreaks.

The virtual workshop Pivotal Interfaces of Environmental Health and Infectious Disease Research to Inform Responses to Outbreaks, Epidemics, and Pandemics was held on June 8-9, 2021. This workshop provided a venue for experts in infectious diseases, environmental health, and data science from government, academia, and the private sector to examine current knowledge about the environment-infectious disease interface and to explore how this knowledge can be used to inform public health decisions. Key workshop topics included how advances in environmental exposure assessments can be applied to identify, predict, and monitor critical infectious disease exposure pathways, and how climate and environmental modeling techniques can be applied to better understand the biology and transmission dynamics of pathogens and provide early warning of emerging threats. In addition, workshop sessions explored critical data gaps at the environment-infectious disease interface and provided insight on how new and emerging techniques can be applied to address those data gaps, especially through the integration of tools used in environmental health and infectious disease research. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Pivotal Interfaces of Environmental Health and Infectious Disease Research to Inform Responses to Outbreaks, Epidemics, and Pandemics: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Leveraging Advances in Remote Geospatial Technologies to Inform Precision Environmental Health Decisions, a virtual workshop held on April 14-15, 2021, explored how advances in geospatial technologies can inform precision environmental health, the targeted public health interventions that reach the right populations at the right time. The workshop was organized by a planning committee of the Standing Committee on the Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions, a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine program that examines and discusses issues regarding the use of new science, tools, and methodologies for environmental health research and decisions. The workshop included plenary and scientific presentations that focused on technical advances and applications of remote geospatial technologies in environmental health. The workshop was organized around three main sessions: leveraging geospatial technologies to advance environmental justice and health equity; personalizing exposure science to improve environmental health; and geospatial science for preparing for and responding to environmental disasters. The workshop's final session centered on breakout discussions on major cross-cutting themes including data availability; data integration; training and capacity building; and privacy and ethics. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Leveraging Advances in Remote Geospatial Technologies to Inform Precision Environmental Health Decisions: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Mounting evidence shows that the environment can play an important role in mental health, yet comparatively few studies have focused on the mental or behavioral health outcomes of environmental stressors. The Interplay Between Environmental Exposures and Mental Health Outcomes, a virtual workshop held on February 2-3, 2021, provided mental health and environmental health research experts from government, academia, and the private sector with the opportunity to explore emerging research on the relationships between environmental exposures and mental health. Workshop presentations covered a broad array of the diverse makeup of environmental exposures, including those that are chemical, biological, or physical, and either natural or human-made in origin. Furthermore, while the historical definition of an environmental exposure refers to a contact that causes a negative health effect, some presenters highlighted how a person's environment can lead to positive mental health outcomes. Workshop participants also discussed approaches to better integrate mental and behavioral health into multidisciplinary considerations of environmental health; considered how mental and behavioral health impacts could become part of environmental risk assessments and public health choices; and highlighted new tools and technologies to assess ways in which the environment can affect mental health. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief provides the rapporteurs' high-level summary of the topics addressed in the workshop and suggestions provided by workshop participants for ways of integrating mental and behavioral health research and environmental research.

The Interplay Between Environmental Exposures and Mental Health Outcomes: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

This rapid expert consultation responds to a request from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) concerning the possibility that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be spread by conversation, in addition to sneeze/cough-induced droplets.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a standing committee of experts to help inform OSTP on critical science and policy issues related to emerging infectious diseases and other public health threats. The standing committee includes members with expertise in emerging infectious diseases, public health, public health preparedness and response, biological sciences, clinical care and crisis standards of care, risk communication, and regulatory issues.

Rapid Expert Consultation on the Possibility of Bioaerosol Spread of SARS-CoV-2 for the COVID-19 Pandemic (April 1, 2020)

Regenerative medicine products, which are intended to repair or replace damaged cells or tissues in the body, include a range of therapeutic approaches such as cell- and gene-based therapies, engineered tissues, and non-biologic constructs. The current approach to characterizing the quality of a regenerative medicine product and the manufacturing process often involves measuring as many endpoints as possible, but this approach has proved to be inadequate and unsustainable.

The Forum on Regenerative Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened experts across disciplines for a 2-day virtual public workshop to explore systems thinking approaches and how they may be applied to support the identification of relevant quality attributes that can help in the optimization of manufacturing and streamline regulatory processes for regenerative medicine. A broad array of stakeholders, including data scientists, physical scientists, industry researchers, regulatory officials, clinicians, and patient representatives, discussed new advances in data acquisition, data analysis and theoretical frameworks, and how systems approaches can be applied to the development of regenerative medicine products that can address the unmet needs of patients. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Applying Systems Thinking to Regenerative Medicine: Proceedings of a Workshop

This rapid expert consultation focuses on monoclonal antibody (mAbs) therapies authorized for use in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. This consultation describes the approaches taken in different jurisdictions at the federal, state, and local/institutional levels to ensure an effective, equitable, and fair allocation of mAbs and points to challenges in reaching underserved patients.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a standing committee of experts to help inform the Office of Science and Technology Policy on critical science and policy issues related to emerging infectious diseases and other public health threats. The standing committee includes members with expertise in emerging infectious diseases, public health, public health preparedness and response, biological sciences, clinical care and crisis standards of care, risk communication, and regulatory issues.

Rapid Expert Consultation on Allocating COVID-19 Monoclonal Antibody Therapies and Other Novel Therapeutics (January 29, 2021)

Biological collections are a critical part of the nation's science and innovation infrastructure and a fundamental resource for understanding the natural world. Biological collections underpin basic science discoveries as well as deepen our understanding of many challenges such as global change, biodiversity loss, sustainable food production, ecosystem conservation, and improving human health and security. They are important resources for education, both in formal training for the science and technology workforce, and in informal learning through schools, citizen science programs, and adult learning. However, the sustainability of biological collections is under threat. Without enhanced strategic leadership and investments in their infrastructure and growth many biological collections could be lost.

Biological Collections: Ensuring Critical Research and Education for the 21st Century recommends approaches for biological collections to develop long-term financial sustainability, advance digitization, recruit and support a diverse workforce, and upgrade and maintain a robust physical infrastructure in order to continue serving science and society. The aim of the report is to stimulate a national discussion regarding the goals and strategies needed to ensure that U.S. biological collections not only thrive but continue to grow throughout the 21st century and beyond.

Biological Collections: Ensuring Critical Research and Education for the 21st Century

A Research Strategy to Examine the Taxonomy of the Red Wolf provides independent guidance about taxonomic research on the red wolf, Canis rufus . Building from the 2019 report Evaluating the Taxonomic Status of the Mexican Gray Wolf and the Red Wolf , this report reviews and ranks research applications to determine the taxonomy of wild canid populations in southern Louisiana and other relevant locations. The report then develops a research strategy to examine the evolutionary relationships between ancient red wolves, the extant managed red wolf populations, and the unidentified canid populations.

A Research Strategy to Examine the Taxonomy of the Red Wolf

Under U.S. policy and international treaty, the goals of planetary protection are to avoid both adverse changes in Earth’s environment caused by introducing extraterrestrial matter and harmful contamination of solar system bodies in order to protect their biological integrity for scientific study. The United States has long cooperated with other countries and relevant scientific communities through the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) of the International Council for Science in developing planetary protection guidance for different categories of space missions. In the past, achieving planetary protection objectives through science-based, international-consensus guidelines proved relatively straightforward because a small number of spacefaring nations explored the solar system, predominantly through government-led and scientifically focused robotic missions.

However, interest in, and the capabilities to undertake, exploration and uses of outer space are evolving and expanding. More countries are engaging in space activities. Private-sector involvement is increasing. Planning is under way for human as well as robotic missions. As recent advisory reports have highlighted, the changes in the nature of space activities create unprecedented challenges for planetary protection.

This publication responds to NASA’s request for “a short report on the impact of human activities on lunar polar volatiles (e.g., water, carbon dioxide, and methane) and the scientific value of protecting the surface and subsurface regions of the Earth’s Moon from organic and biological contamination.” It provides an overview of the current scientific understanding, value, and potential threat of organic and biological contamination of permanently shadowed regions (PSRs), lunar research relevant to understanding prebiotic evolution and the origin of life, and the likelihood that spacecraft landing on the lunar surface will transfer volatiles to polar cold traps. It also assesses how much and which regions of the Moon’s surface and subsurface warrant protection from organic and biological contamination because of their scientific value.

Report Series: Committee on Planetary Protection: Planetary Protection for the Study of Lunar Volatiles

Heritable human genome editing - making changes to the genetic material of eggs, sperm, or any cells that lead to their development, including the cells of early embryos, and establishing a pregnancy - raises not only scientific and medical considerations but also a host of ethical, moral, and societal issues. Human embryos whose genomes have been edited should not be used to create a pregnancy until it is established that precise genomic changes can be made reliably and without introducing undesired changes - criteria that have not yet been met, says Heritable Human Genome Editing .

From an international commission of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the U.K.'s Royal Society, the report considers potential benefits, harms, and uncertainties associated with genome editing technologies and defines a translational pathway from rigorous preclinical research to initial clinical uses, should a country decide to permit such uses. The report specifies stringent preclinical and clinical requirements for establishing safety and efficacy, and for undertaking long-term monitoring of outcomes. Extensive national and international dialogue is needed before any country decides whether to permit clinical use of this technology, according to the report, which identifies essential elements of national and international scientific governance and oversight.

Heritable Human Genome Editing

The COVID-19 pandemic has created both acute and chronic stresses on the health care system and on health care personnel nationwide. At present, the nation lacks a uniform system to collect, collate, and report illnesses and deaths among health care workers due to COVID-19, and only a few studies report on efforts to improve the health and well-being of health care workers.

At the request of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, this rapid expert consultation reviews current resources and methods for tracking and evaluating health care worker deaths related to COVID-19 in the health care setting. This rapid expert consultation also examines some ways to support health care worker well-being and safety during the pandemic.

Rapid Expert Consultation on Understanding Causes of Health Care Worker Deaths Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic (December 10, 2020)

One of the holy grails in biology is the ability to predict functional characteristics from an organism's genetic sequence. Despite decades of research since the first sequencing of an organism in 1995, scientists still do not understand exactly how the information in genes is converted into an organism's phenotype, its physical characteristics. Functional genomics attempts to make use of the vast wealth of data from "-omics" screens and projects to describe gene and protein functions and interactions. A February 2020 workshop was held to determine research needs to advance the field of functional genomics over the next 10-20 years. Speakers and participants discussed goals, strategies, and technical needs to allow functional genomics to contribute to the advancement of basic knowledge and its applications that would benefit society. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Next Steps for Functional Genomics: Proceedings of a Workshop

Since the start of the pandemic, diagnostic testing has been critical to the medical care of those infected with COVID-19, the protection of health care and other essential workers, and the efforts to contain the spread of the disease. This rapid expert consultation draws attention to four critical areas in developing diagnostic testing and strategies to reduce the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths: (1) advantages and limitations of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for viral RNA; (2) the status of POC testing; (3) testing strategies, namely, considerations in the deployment of types and sequences of tests; and (4) next-generation testing that offers the prospect of highthroughput, rapid, and less expensive testing.

This rapid expert consultation was convened under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats.

Rapid Expert Consultation on Critical Issues in Diagnostic Testing for the COVID-19 Pandemic (November 9, 2020)

Biomarkers of effect are measurable changes in an individual that indicate health impairment or disease. Although biomarkers have long been a crucial part of medical practice - blood pressure is a simple example - researchers have recently identified a variety of new biomarkers that signal the presence of conditions such as nervous system damage, autoimmune disorders, and cancer. Of particular interest is the potential of these new biomarkers to measure adverse health effects that may arise from exposure to environmental pollutants.

On August 12-13, 2020, the Standing Committee on the Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a 2-day workshop to explore how new biomarker approaches can be applied to understanding the consequences of environmental exposures and improve environmental health decisions. The workshop brought together a multidisciplinary group, including experts in public health, environmental health, clinical medicine, and health disparities to discuss the state of the art in biomarkers and health. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief summarizes the workshop presentations and the discussions that took place among the participants.

Predicting Human Health Effects from Environmental Exposures: Applying Translatable and Accessible Biomarkers of Effect: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Report of the Committee on Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics: Eleventh Round evaluates submissions received in response to a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Biomolecular Simulation Time on Anton 2, a supercomputer designed and built by D. E. Shaw Research (DESRES). Over the past 10 years, DESRES has made an Anton or Anton 2 system housed at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center available to the non-commercial research community. The goal of the eleventh RFP for simulation time on Anton 2 is to continue to facilitate breakthrough research in the study of biomolecular systems by providing a massively parallel system specially designed for molecular dynamics simulations. The program seeks to continue to support research that addresses important and high impact questions demonstrating a clear need for Anton’s special capabilities.

Report of the Committee on Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics: Eleventh Round

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in collaboration with the InterAcademy Partnership and the European Academies Science Advisory Committee held a workshop in November 2019 to bring together researchers and public health officials from different countries and across several relevant disciplines to explore what is known, and what critical knowledge gaps remain, regarding existing and possible future risks of harmful infectious agents emerging from thawing permafrost and melting ice in the Arctic region. The workshop examined case studies such as the specific case of Arctic region anthrax outbreaks, as a known, observed risk as well as other types of human and animal microbial health risks that have been discovered in snow, ice, or permafrost environments, or that could conceivably exist. The workshop primarily addressed two sources of emerging infectious diseases in the arctic: (1) new diseases likely to emerge in the Arctic as a result of climate change (such as vector-borne diseases) and (2) ancient and endemic diseases likely to emerge in the Arctic specifically as a result of permafrost thaw. Participants also considered key research that could advance knowledge including critical tools for improving observations, and surveillance to advance understanding of these risks, and to facilitate and implement effective early warning systems. Lessons learned from efforts to address emerging or re-emerging microbial threats elsewhere in the world were also discussed. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Understanding and Responding to Global Health Security Risks from Microbial Threats in the Arctic: Proceedings of a Workshop

Biomedical research results in the collection and storage of increasingly large and complex data sets. Preserving those data so that they are discoverable, accessible, and interpretable accelerates scientific discovery and improves health outcomes, but requires that researchers, data curators, and data archivists consider the long-term disposition of data and the costs of preserving, archiving, and promoting access to them.

Life Cycle Decisions for Biomedical Data examines and assesses approaches and considerations for forecasting costs for preserving, archiving, and promoting access to biomedical research data. This report provides a comprehensive conceptual framework for cost-effective decision making that encourages data accessibility and reuse for researchers, data managers, data archivists, data scientists, and institutions that support platforms that enable biomedical research data preservation, discoverability, and use.

Life-Cycle Decisions for Biomedical Data: The Challenge of Forecasting Costs

Understanding and ensuring healthy aging has become increasingly important as the human life span increases with each decade. The need to better understand the role of environmental exposures in the development of aging-related diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia, is now an important driver for research at the intersection of aging and environmental health. With that in mind, on June 9-10, 2020, the Standing Committee on the Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a 1.5-day workshop to explore how environmental exposures influence or mediate aging and how aging influences environmentally mediated health outcomes. The workshop brought together a multidisciplinary group of experts who described the current state of knowledge in the field as well as ideas for next steps including research opportunities and needs, enabling technologies and analytical tools, and mechanisms to anticipate and use new data to inform environmental health decisions. This Proceedings of a Workshop in Brief summarizes the invited speakers' presentations and the discussion periods that followed each session.

Integrating the Science of Aging and Environmental Health Research: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

This rapid expert consultation builds on prior National Academies reports on the Crisis Standards of Care (CSC) and the rapid expert consultation on March 28, 2020, and focuses on staffing needs for the care of COVID patients, including the deployment and allocation of expert clinical staff during COVID-19. It does not attempt to dictate exactly what choices should be made under exactly what circumstances, as that should be left to the judgment of the professional, institutional, community, and civic leaders who are best situated to understand the local conditions.

Rapid Expert Consultation on Staffing Considerations for Crisis Standards of Care for the COVID-19 Pandemic (July 28, 2020)

Emerging Technologies to Advance Research and Decisions on the Environmental Health Effects of Microplastics: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine was asked to articulate a 5-year strategic vision for international health security programs and provide findings and recommendations on how to optimize the impact of the Department of Defense (DOD) Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) in fulfilling its biosafety and biosecurity mission. Because BTRP is just one of several U.S. government programs conducting international health security engagement, both the strategic vision and the success of the program rely on coordinating actions with the U.S. government as a whole and with its international partners. This report provides several recommendations for optimizing BTRP success in its current mission and the wider-looking strategic vision it proposes.

A Strategic Vision for Biological Threat Reduction: The U.S. Department of Defense and Beyond

Recognizing the potential design complexities and ethical issues associated with clinical trials for gene therapies, the Forum on Regenerative Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a 1-day workshop in Washington, DC, on November 13, 2019. Speakers at the workshop discussed patient recruitment and selection for gene-based clinical trials, explored how the safety of new therapies is assessed, reviewed the challenges involving dose escalation, and spoke about ethical issues such as informed consent and the role of clinicians in recommending trials as options to their patients. The workshop also included discussions of topics related to gene therapies in the context of other available and potentially curative treatments, such as bone marrow transplantation for hemoglobinopathies. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Exploring Novel Clinical Trial Designs for Gene-Based Therapies: Proceedings of a Workshop

This rapid expert consultation responds to a request from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) concerning the duration of viral shedding by stage of infection, clinical signs and symptoms and patient attributes; the levels and duration of antibody response and related resistance to illness; and optimal duration of isolation of cases. For each of these questions, this document provides relevant scientific evidence and the state of current scientific knowledge; an overview of scientists currently working in the area and what new results are anticipated; and recommendations for investigations that should be initiated or extended to provide more complete information.

Rapid Expert Consultation on SARS-CoV-2 Viral Shedding and Antibody Response for the COVID-19 Pandemic (April 8, 2020)

This rapid expert consultation responds to a request from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) for information on the interpretation of laboratory tests, future developments and research needs. This publication provides scientifically grounded principles that are relevant to decision-making about the interpretation of laboratory tests.

Rapid Expert Consultation on SARS-CoV-2 Laboratory Testing for the COVID-19 Pandemic (April 8, 2020)

This rapid expert consultation responds to a request from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) concerning the effectiveness of homemade fabric masks worn by the general public to protect others, as distinct from protecting the wearer. The request stems from an interest in reducing transmission within the community by individuals who are infected, potentially contagious, but symptomatic or presymptomatic.

Rapid Expert Consultation on the Effectiveness of Fabric Masks for the COVID-19 Pandemic (April 8, 2020)

This rapid expert consultation responds to a request from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) concerning survival of the SARS-CoV2 virus in relation to temperature and humidity and potential for seasonal reduction and resurgence in cases.

Rapid Expert Consultation on SARS-CoV-2 Survival in Relation to Temperature and Humidity and Potential for Seasonality for the COVID-19 Pandemic (April 7, 2020)

Research and innovation in the life sciences is driving rapid growth in agriculture, biomedical science, information science and computing, energy, and other sectors of the U.S. economy. This economic activity, conceptually referred to as the bioeconomy, presents many opportunities to create jobs, improve the quality of life, and continue to drive economic growth. While the United States has been a leader in advancements in the biological sciences, other countries are also actively investing in and expanding their capabilities in this area. Maintaining competitiveness in the bioeconomy is key to maintaining the economic health and security of the United States and other nations.

Safeguarding the Bioeconomy evaluates preexisting and potential approaches for assessing the value of the bioeconomy and identifies intangible assets not sufficiently captured or that are missing from U.S. assessments. This study considers strategies for safeguarding and sustaining the economic activity driven by research and innovation in the life sciences. It also presents ideas for horizon scanning mechanisms to identify new technologies, markets, and data sources that have the potential to drive future development of the bioeconomy.

Safeguarding the Bioeconomy

This rapid expert consultation responds to a request from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) concerning the implementation of crisis standards of care (CSC) in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Building on a 10-year foundation of work by the Institute of Medicine, this document summarizes the broad principles and core elements of CSC planning and implementation.

Rapid Expert Consultation on Crisis Standards of Care for the COVID-19 Pandemic (March 28, 2020)

A previous Rapid Expert Consultation, dated March 15, provided feedback to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) concerning issues of virus survival on surfaces and in the air, and virus/disease incubation period. This publication provides an update and elaboration on these issues, as well as some caveats about the work performed so far and as yet unmet needs.

Rapid Expert Consultation Update on SARS-CoV-2 Surface Stability and Incubation for the COVID-19 Pandemic (March 27, 2020)

This rapid expert consultation responds to a request from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) concerning questions about necessary data elements, sources of data, gaps in collection, and suggestions for data system design and integration to improve modeling and decision-making for COVID-19.

Rapid Expert Consultation on Data Elements and Systems Design for Modeling and Decision Making for the COVID-19 Pandemic (March 21, 2020)

This rapid expert consultation responds to a request from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) concerning the survival of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on surfaces and the incubation period between exposure and onset of symptoms.

Rapid Expert Consultation on SARS-CoV-2 Surface Stability and Incubation for the COVID-19 Pandemic (March 15, 2020)

This rapid expert consultation responds to a request from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) concerning questions about severe illness in younger adults in Italy infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Rapid Expert Consultation on Severe Illness in Young Adults for the COVID-19 Pandemic (March 14, 2020)

This rapid expert consultation responds to a request from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) concerning the effectiveness and costs of social distancing measures in contending with COVID-19.

Rapid Expert Consultation on Social Distancing for the COVID-19 Pandemic (March 19, 2020)

Legionnaires' disease, a pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacterium, is the leading cause of reported waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States. Legionella occur naturally in water from many different environmental sources, but grow rapidly in the warm, stagnant conditions that can be found in engineered water systems such as cooling towers, building plumbing, and hot tubs. Humans are primarily exposed to Legionella through inhalation of contaminated aerosols into the respiratory system. Legionnaires' disease can be fatal, with between 3 and 33 percent of Legionella infections leading to death, and studies show the incidence of Legionnaires' disease in the United States increased five-fold from 2000 to 2017.

Management of Legionella in Water Systems reviews the state of science on Legionella contamination of water systems, specifically the ecology and diagnosis. This report explores the process of transmission via water systems, quantification, prevention and control, and policy and training issues that affect the incidence of Legionnaires' disease. It also analyzes existing knowledge gaps and recommends research priorities moving forward.

Management of Legionella in Water Systems

Biomedical research data sets are becoming larger and more complex, and computing capabilities are expanding to enable transformative scientific results. The National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) National Library of Medicine (NLM) has the unique role of ensuring that biomedical research data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable in an ethical manner. Tools that forecast the costs of long-term data preservation could be useful as the cost to curate and manage these data in meaningful ways continues to increase, as could stewardship to assess and maintain data that have future value.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on July 11-12, 2019 to gather insight and information in order to develop and demonstrate a framework for forecasting long-term costs for preserving, archiving, and accessing biomedical data. Presenters and attendees discussed tools and practices that NLM could use to help researchers and funders better integrate risk management practices and considerations into data preservation, archiving, and accessing decisions; methods to encourage NIH-funded researchers to consider, update, and track lifetime data; and burdens on the academic researchers and industry staff to implement these tools, methods, and practices. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Planning for Long-Term Use of Biomedical Data: Proceedings of a Workshop

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service commissioned the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to develop a request for applications, "Research to determine the taxonomy of wild canid populations in regions of the United States where recent evidence suggests the potential presence of red wolves (Canis rufus)," and to conduct an independent evaluation of the submitted applications. This letter report describes the work of the committee and transmits the final evaluation of applications to carry out research.

Evaluation of Applications to Carry Out Research to Determine the Taxonomy of Wild Canids in the Southeastern United States

This report describes the work of the Committee on Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics, Tenth Round. The committee evaluated submissions received in response to a Request for Proposals (RFP) for biomolecular simulation time on Anton 2, a supercomputer specially designed and built by D.E. Shaw Research (DESRES). Over the past 9 years, DESRES has made an Anton or Anton 2 system housed at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) available to the non-commercial research community, based on the advice of previous National Research Council committees. As in prior rounds, the goal of the tenth RFP for simulation time on Anton 2 is to continue to facilitate breakthrough research in the study of biomolecular systems by providing a massively parallel system specially designed for molecular dynamics simulations. The program seeks to continue to support research that addresses important and high impact questions demonstrating a clear need for Anton's special capabilities.

Report of the Committee on Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics, Tenth Round  is the final report of the committee's evaluation of proposals based on scientific merit, justification for requested time allocation, and investigator qualifications and past accomplishments. This report identifies the proposals that best met the selection criteria.

Report of the Committee on Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics: Tenth Round

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technological invention that promises to transform everyday life and the world. Investment and enthusiasm for AI—or the ability of machines to carry out “smart” tasks—are driven largely by advancements in the subfield of machine learning. Machine learning algorithms can analyze large volumes of complex data to find patterns and make predictions, often exceeding the accuracy and efficiency of people who are attempting the same task. Powered by a tremendous growth in data collection and availability as well as computing power and accessibility, AI and machine learning applications are becoming commonplace in many aspects of modern society, as well as in a growing number of scientific disciplines.

On June 6–7, 2019, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a 2-day workshop to explore emerging applications and implications of AI and machine learning in environmental health research and decisions. Speakers highlighted the use of AI and machine learning to characterize sources of pollution, predict chemical toxicity, and estimate human exposures to contaminants, among other applications. Though promising, questions remain about the use of AI and machine learning in environmental health research and public policy decisions. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Advance Environmental Health Research and Decisions: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Coral reefs are critical to ocean and human life because they provide food, living area, storm protection, tourism income, and more. However, human-induced stressors, such as overfishing, sediment, pollution, and habitat destruction have threatened ocean ecosystems globally for decades. In the face of climate change, these ecosystems now face an array of unfamiliar challenges due to destructive rises in ocean temperature, acidity and sea level. These factors lead to an increased frequency of bleaching events, hindered growth, and a decreasing rate of calcification. Research on interventions to combat these relatively new stressors and a reevaluation of longstanding interventions is necessary to understand and protect coral reefs in this changing climate. Previous research on these methods prompts further questions regarding the decision making process for site-specific interventions.

A Decision Framework for Interventions to Increase the Persistence and Resilience of Coral Reefs builds upon a previous report that reviews the state of research on methods that have been used, tested, or proposed to increase the resilience of coral reefs. This new report aims to help coral managers evaluate the specific needs of their site and navigate the 23 different interventions described in the previous report. A case study of the Caribbean, a region with low coral population plagued by disease, serves as an example for coral intervention decision making. This report provides complex coral management decision making tools, identifies gaps in coral biology and conservation research, and provides examples to help individuals and communities tailor a decision strategy to a local area.

A Decision Framework for Interventions to Increase the Persistence and Resilience of Coral Reefs

Infectious diseases are among the top five leading causes of death worldwide. Scientists have long known that the environment plays a defining role in the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. However, the relationships among human exposures to environmental pollution; rapid environmental change; and the emergence, spread, and persistence of infectious diseases are not yet well understood. Emerging findings suggest that exposure to environmental pollutants such as airborne particulate matter, industrial chemicals, and heavy metals may alter the immune system, increasing human susceptibility to infection. New research findings show that the microbiome of humans and ecosystems also play important roles in infection. Nonetheless, the fields of environmental health and infectious diseases largely operate distinctly from one another even though research on the interplay between these fields could inform new health practices, public health research, and public health policy.

On January 15–16, 2019, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a 2-day workshop to explore emerging evidence on the interactions among environmental stressors, infectious diseases, and human health. The workshop brought together a multidisciplinary group, including experts in infectious disease, global public health, toxicology, epidemiology, and science policy, to discuss the emerging science and its implications for decisions about research and public policy. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Toward Understanding the Interplay of Environmental Stressors, Infectious Diseases, and Human Health: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Over the past decade, single-molecule and single-cell technologies have rapidly advanced healthcare research by enabling scientists to isolate individual cells. On March 7–8, 2019, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a 2-day workshop to explore new single-cell and single-molecule analysis technologies. The participants discussed different uses of new cell technologies, valuable tools and lessons for data analysis, the challenges of translating single-cell genomics to the clinic, and applications in environmental health. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The Promise of Single-Cell and Single-Molecule Analysis Tools to Advance Environmental Health Research: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Over the past 15 years, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) have convened multiple committees of leading experts to address ethical challenges related to innovative and emerging biomedical technologies. After reviewing prior National Academies' reports, individual ethics principles and considerations were identified and grouped into sets of related considerations to establish guidelines for future studies.

Framework for Addressing Ethical Dimensions of Emerging and Innovative Biomedical Technologies provides a synopsis of principal ethical commitments and core values that characterize the National Academies' work in the domain of emerging biomedical technologies. This publication offers a synthesis of relevant National Academies' reports.

Framework for Addressing Ethical Dimensions of Emerging and Innovative Biomedical Technologies: A Synthesis of Relevant National Academies Reports

Convergence-based research approaches are critical in solving many scientific challenges, which frequently draw on large teams of collaborators from multiple disciplines. The 2014 report Convergence: Facilitating Transdisciplinary Integration of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Beyond describes the term “convergence” as a multidisciplinary approach that melds divergent areas of expertise to form conclusions that are inaccessible otherwise. However, a convergence-based approach involves hybrid systems of people, buildings, and instruments, which pose complex structural and managerial challenges.

In October 23–24, 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to explore efforts to promote cultures that support convergence-based approaches to research. The 2014 report served as a foundation for this workshop, allowing participants to further explore convergence as a valuable and adaptable approach to organizing research. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Fostering the Culture of Convergence in Research: Proceedings of a Workshop

On June 27-28, 2018, the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) convened an international workshop in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on developing norms for the provision of laboratories in low-resource contexts. The U.S. Department of State's Biosecurity Engagement Program requested that the National Academies organize this workshop to engage an international group of organizations that provide funding for construction, upgrades, and maintenance of biological laboratories in countries without the means to build such labs themselves. Twenty-one people from 19 organizations participated. The intent was to advance the conversation about the identification and application of guiding principles and common norms for use by these organizations in their grants, partnerships, and aid. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Developing Norms for the Provision of Biological Laboratories in Low-Resource Contexts: Proceedings of a Workshop

Scientists strive to develop clear rules for naming and grouping living organisms. But taxonomy, the scientific study of biological classification and evolution, is often highly debated. Members of a species, the fundamental unit of taxonomy and evolution, share a common evolutionary history and a common evolutionary path to the future. Yet, it can be difficult to determine whether the evolutionary history or future of a population is sufficiently distinct to designate it as a unique species.

A species is not a fixed entity – the relationship among the members of the same species is only a snapshot of a moment in time. Different populations of the same species can be in different stages in the process of species formation or dissolution. In some cases hybridization and introgression can create enormous challenges in interpreting data on genetic distinctions between groups. Hybridization is far more common in the evolutionary history of many species than previously recognized. As a result, the precise taxonomic status of an organism may be highly debated. This is the current case with the Mexican gray wolf ( Canis lupus baileyi ) and the red wolf ( Canis rufus ), and this report assesses the taxonomic status for each.

Evaluating the Taxonomic Status of the Mexican Gray Wolf and the Red Wolf

Vegetation change has been observed across Arctic and boreal regions. Studies have often documented large-scale greening trends, but they have also identified areas of browning or shifts between greening and browning over varying spatial extents and time periods. At the same time, though, there are large portions of these ecosystems that have not exhibited measurable trends in greening or browning. These findings have fueled many questions about the drivers of vegetation dynamics, how trends are measured, and potential implications of vegetation change at local to global scales.

In December 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, convened a workshop to discuss opportunities to improve understanding of greening and browning trends and drivers and the implications of these vegetation changes. The discussions included a close look at many of the methodological approaches used to evaluate greening and browning, as well as exploration of newer technologies that may help advance the science. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Understanding Northern Latitude Vegetation Greening and Browning: Proceedings of a Workshop

Coral reef declines have been recorded for all major tropical ocean basins since the 1980s, averaging approximately 30-50% reductions in reef cover globally. These losses are a result of numerous problems, including habitat destruction, pollution, overfishing, disease, and climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions and the associated increases in ocean temperature and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have been implicated in increased reports of coral bleaching, disease outbreaks, and ocean acidification (OA). For the hundreds of millions of people who depend on reefs for food or livelihoods, the thousands of communities that depend on reefs for wave protection, the people whose cultural practices are tied to reef resources, and the many economies that depend on reefs for fisheries or tourism, the health and maintenance of this major global ecosystem is crucial.

A growing body of research on coral physiology, ecology, molecular biology, and responses to stress has revealed potential tools to increase coral resilience. Some of this knowledge is poised to provide practical interventions in the short-term, whereas other discoveries are poised to facilitate research that may later open the doors to additional interventions. A Research Review of Interventions to Increase the Persistence and Resilience of Coral Reefs reviews the state of science on genetic, ecological, and environmental interventions meant to enhance the persistence and resilience of coral reefs. The complex nature of corals and their associated microbiome lends itself to a wide range of possible approaches. This first report provides a summary of currently available information on the range of interventions present in the scientific literature and provides a basis for the forthcoming final report.

A Research Review of Interventions to Increase the Persistence and Resilience of Coral Reefs

For nearly a century, scientific advances have fueled progress in U.S. agriculture to enable American producers to deliver safe and abundant food domestically and provide a trade surplus in bulk and high-value agricultural commodities and foods. Today, the U.S. food and agricultural enterprise faces formidable challenges that will test its long-term sustainability, competitiveness, and resilience. On its current path, future productivity in the U.S. agricultural system is likely to come with trade-offs. The success of agriculture is tied to natural systems, and these systems are showing signs of stress, even more so with the change in climate.

More than a third of the food produced is unconsumed, an unacceptable loss of food and nutrients at a time of heightened global food demand. Increased food animal production to meet greater demand will generate more greenhouse gas emissions and excess animal waste. The U.S. food supply is generally secure, but is not immune to the costly and deadly shocks of continuing outbreaks of food-borne illness or to the constant threat of pests and pathogens to crops, livestock, and poultry. U.S. farmers and producers are at the front lines and will need more tools to manage the pressures they face.

Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030 identifies innovative, emerging scientific advances for making the U.S. food and agricultural system more efficient, resilient, and sustainable. This report explores the availability of relatively new scientific developments across all disciplines that could accelerate progress toward these goals. It identifies the most promising scientific breakthroughs that could have the greatest positive impact on food and agriculture, and that are possible to achieve in the next decade (by 2030).

Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030

The emerging multidisciplinary field of regenerative engineering is devoted to the repair, regeneration, and replacement of damaged tissues or organs in the body. To accomplish this it uses a combination of principles and technologies from disciplines such as advanced materials science, developmental and stem cell biology, immunology, physics, and clinical translation. The term "regenerative engineering" reflects a new understanding of the use of tissue engineering for regeneration and also the growing number of research and product development efforts that incorporate elements from a variety of fields. Because regenerative engineered therapies rely on live cells and scaffolds, there are inherent challenges in quality control arising from variability in source and final products. Furthermore, each patient recipient, tissue donor, and product application is unique, meaning that the field faces complexities in the development of safe and effective new products and therapies which are not faced by developers of more conventional therapies. Understanding the many sources of variability can help reduce this variability and ensure consistent results.

The Forum on Regenerative Medicine hosted a public workshop on October 18, 2018, in Washington, DC, to explore the various factors that must be taken into account in order to develop successful regenerative engineering products. Invited speakers and participants discussed factors and sources of variability in the development and clinical application of regenerative engineering products, characteristics of high-quality products, and how different clinical needs, models, and contexts can inform the development of a product to improve patient outcomes. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Exploring Sources of Variability Related to the Clinical Translation of Regenerative Engineering Products: Proceedings of a Workshop

Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. It is an inherently interdisciplinary field that encompasses astronomy, biology, geology, heliophysics, and planetary science, including complementary laboratory activities and field studies conducted in a wide range of terrestrial environments. Combining inherent scientific interest and public appeal, the search for life in the solar system and beyond provides a scientific rationale for many current and future activities carried out by the National Aeronautics and Science Administration (NASA) and other national and international agencies and organizations.

Requested by NASA, this study offers a science strategy for astrobiology that outlines key scientific questions, identifies the most promising research in the field, and indicates the extent to which the mission priorities in existing decadal surveys address the search for life's origin, evolution, distribution, and future in the universe. This report makes recommendations for advancing the research, obtaining the measurements, and realizing NASA's goal to search for signs of life in the universe.

An Astrobiology Strategy for the Search for Life in the Universe

Environmental engineers support the well-being of people and the planet in areas where the two intersect. Over the decades the field has improved countless lives through innovative systems for delivering water, treating waste, and preventing and remediating pollution in air, water, and soil. These achievements are a testament to the multidisciplinary, pragmatic, systems-oriented approach that characterizes environmental engineering.

Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges outlines the crucial role for environmental engineers in this period of dramatic growth and change. The report identifies five pressing challenges of the 21st century that environmental engineers are uniquely poised to help advance: sustainably supply food, water, and energy; curb climate change and adapt to its impacts; design a future without pollution and waste; create efficient, healthy, resilient cities; and foster informed decisions and actions.

Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges

Scientific advances over the past several decades have accelerated the ability to engineer existing organisms and to potentially create novel ones not found in nature. Synthetic biology, which collectively refers to concepts, approaches, and tools that enable the modification or creation of biological organisms, is being pursued overwhelmingly for beneficial purposes ranging from reducing the burden of disease to improving agricultural yields to remediating pollution. Although the contributions synthetic biology can make in these and other areas hold great promise, it is also possible to imagine malicious uses that could threaten U.S. citizens and military personnel. Making informed decisions about how to address such concerns requires a realistic assessment of the capabilities that could be misused.

Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology explores and envisions potential misuses of synthetic biology. This report develops a framework to guide an assessment of the security concerns related to advances in synthetic biology, assesses the levels of concern warranted for such advances, and identifies options that could help mitigate those concerns.

Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology

Improved observations of the atmospheric boundary layer (BL) and its interactions with the ocean, land, and ice surfaces have great potential to advance science on a number of fronts, from improving forecasts of severe storms and air quality to constraining estimates of trace gas emissions and transport. Understanding the BL is a crucial component of model advancements, and increased societal demands for extended weather impact forecasts (from hours to months and beyond) highlight the need to advance Earth system modeling and prediction. New observing technologies and approaches (including in situ and ground-based, airborne, and satellite remote sensing) have the potential to radically increase the density of observations and allow new types of variables to be measured within the BL, which will have broad scientific and societal benefits.

In October 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to explore the future of BL observations and their role in improving modeling and forecasting capabilities. Workshop participants discussed the science and applications drivers for BL observation, emerging technology to improve observation capabilities, and strategies for the future. This publication summarizes presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The Future of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Observing, Understanding, and Modeling: Proceedings of a Workshop

Continuing advances in science and technology offer the promise of providing tools to meet global challenges in health, agriculture, the environment, and economic development; some of the benefits are already being realized. However, such advances have the potential to challenge the oversight systems for responsible conduct of life sciences research with dual use potential – research that may have beneficial applications but that also could be misused to cause harm.

Between June 10 and 13, 2018, more than 70 participants from 30 different countries and 5 international organizations took part in an international workshop, The Governance of Dual Use Research in the Life Sciences: Advancing Global Consensus on Research Oversight, to promote global dialogue and increased common understandings of the essential elements of governance for such research. Hosted by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb, Croatia, the workshop was a collaboration among the InterAcademy Partnership, the Croatian Academy, the Croatian Society for Biosafety and Biosecurity, and the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Governance of Dual Use Research in the Life Sciences: Advancing Global Consensus on Research Oversight: Proceedings of a Workshop

This report describes the work of the Committee on Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics, Ninth Round. The committee evaluated submissions received in response to a Request for Proposals (RFP) for biomolecular simulation time on Anton 2, a supercomputer specially designed and built by D.E. Shaw Research (DESRES). Over the past 8 years, DESRES has made an Anton or Anton 2 system housed at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) available to the non-commercial research community, based on the advice of previous National Research Council committees. As in prior rounds, the goal of the ninth RFP for simulation time on Anton 2 is to continue to facilitate breakthrough research in the study of biomolecular systems by providing a massively parallel system specially designed for molecular dynamics simulations. The program seeks to continue to support research that addresses important and high impact questions demonstrating a clear need for Anton's special capabilities.

Report of the Committee on Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics, Ninth Round is the final report of the committee's evaluation of proposals based on scientific merit, justification for requested time allocation, and investigator qualifications and past accomplishments. This report identifies the proposals that best met the selection criteria.

Report of the Committee on Proposal Evaluation for Allocation of Supercomputing Time for the Study of Molecular Dynamics: Ninth Round

Integrating large quantities of data from multiple, disparate sources can create new opportunities to understand complex environmental health questions. Currently, efforts are under way to develop methods to reliably integrate data from sources or designed experiments that are not traditionally used in environmental health research, such as electronic health records (EHRs), geospatial datasets, and crowd-based sources. However, combining new types and larger quantities of data to inform a specific decision also presents many new challenges.

On February 20–21, 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop to explore the promise and potential pitfalls of environmental health data integration. The workshop brought together a multidisciplinary group of scientists, policy makers, risk assessors, and regulators to discuss the topic. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Informing Environmental Health Decisions Through Data Integration: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Advances in genome editing - the process for making precise additions, deletions, and alterations of DNA and RNA - have opened the door for studying biological mechanisms of health and disease. On January 10-11, 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Standing Committee on Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions held a 2-day workshop to explore what role genome and epigenome editing tools could play in advancing environmental health research and decision-making. This publication highlights the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

The Promise of Genome Editing Tools to Advance Environmental Health Research: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Advances in new tools and tests of chemical toxicity—from high throughput, cell-based, in vitro studies to tissue chips to environment-wide association studies—have led to a new understanding about the effects of chemical exposures in humans. These new approaches are faster, less expensive, and increasingly more relevant to human exposures than legacy animal toxicity testing approaches. Additionally, the passage of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (Lautenberg Act), which amends the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), has encouraged opportunities for industry and government agencies to use data from emerging toxicity testing approaches, particularly in risk assessment and analysis contexts. However, many questions remain about whether and how to make the paradigm shift away from traditional approaches and toward using new data streams as the basis for the wide array of research, policy, and regulatory decisions facing the environmental health field.

On November 20–22, 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a 2-day workshop to explore key factors that influence how scientists, policy makers, risk assessors, and regulators incorporate new science into their decisions. This workshop aimed to raise awareness about the questions and trade-offs that need to be addressed in order to facilitate a systematic use of data from new and emerging approaches to toxicity testing to maximize confidence and public health protection. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Understanding Pathways to a Paradigm Shift in Toxicity Testing and Decision-Making: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Scientific tools and capabilities to examine relationships between environmental exposure and health outcomes have advanced and will continue to evolve. Researchers are using various tools, technologies, frameworks, and approaches to enhance our understanding of how data from the latest molecular and bioinformatic approaches can support causal frameworks for regulatory decisions. For this reason, on March 6-7, 2017, the National Academies' Standing Committee on Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions, held a 2-day workshop to explore advances in causal understanding for human health risk-based decision-making. The workshop aimed to explore different causal inference models, how they were conceived and are applied, new frameworks and tools for determining causality, and ultimately discussed gaps, challenges, and opportunities for integrating new data streams for determining causality. This workshop brought together environmental health researchers, toxicologists, statisticians, social scientists, epidemiologists, business and consumer representatives, science policy experts, and professionals from other fields who utilize different data streams for establishing causality in complex systems to discuss the topics outlined above. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief summarizes the discussions that took place at the workshop.

Advances in Causal Understanding for Human Health Risk-Based Decision-Making: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

A great number of diverse microorganisms inhabit the human body and are collectively referred to as the human microbiome. Until recently, the role of the human microbiome in maintaining human health was not fully appreciated. Today, however, research is beginning to elucidate associations between perturbations in the human microbiome and human disease and the factors that might be responsible for the perturbations. Studies have indicated that the human microbiome could be affected by environmental chemicals or could modulate exposure to environmental chemicals.

Environmental Chemicals, the Human Microbiome, and Health Risk presents a research strategy to improve our understanding of the interactions between environmental chemicals and the human microbiome and the implications of those interactions for human health risk. This report identifies barriers to such research and opportunities for collaboration, highlights key aspects of the human microbiome and its relation to health, describes potential interactions between environmental chemicals and the human microbiome, reviews the risk-assessment framework and reasons for incorporating chemical–microbiome interactions.

Environmental Chemicals, the Human Microbiome, and Health Risk: A Research Strategy

On June 26, 2017, the Forum on Regenerative Medicine hosted a public workshop in Washington, DC, titled Navigating the Manufacturing Process and Ensuring the Quality of Regenerative Medicine Therapies in order to examine and discuss the challenges, opportunities, and best practices associated with defining and measuring the quality of cell and tissue products and raw materials in the research and manufacturing of regenerative medicine therapies. The goal of the workshop was to learn from existing examples of the manufacturing of early-generation regenerative medicine products and to address how progress could be made in identifying and measuring critical quality attributes. The workshop also addressed the challenges of designing and adhering to standards as a way of helping those who are working to scale up processes and techniques from a research laboratory to the manufacturing environment. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Navigating the Manufacturing Process and Ensuring the Quality of Regenerative Medicine Therapies: Proceedings of a Workshop

People's desire to understand the environments in which they live is a natural one. People spend most of their time in spaces and structures designed, built, and managed by humans, and it is estimated that people in developed countries now spend 90 percent of their lives indoors. As people move from homes to workplaces, traveling in cars and on transit systems, microorganisms are continually with and around them. The human-associated microbes that are shed, along with the human behaviors that affect their transport and removal, make significant contributions to the diversity of the indoor microbiome.

The characteristics of "healthy" indoor environments cannot yet be defined, nor do microbial, clinical, and building researchers yet understand how to modify features of indoor environments—such as building ventilation systems and the chemistry of building materials—in ways that would have predictable impacts on microbial communities to promote health and prevent disease. The factors that affect the environments within buildings, the ways in which building characteristics influence the composition and function of indoor microbial communities, and the ways in which these microbial communities relate to human health and well-being are extraordinarily complex and can be explored only as a dynamic, interconnected ecosystem by engaging the fields of microbial biology and ecology, chemistry, building science, and human physiology.

This report reviews what is known about the intersection of these disciplines, and how new tools may facilitate advances in understanding the ecosystem of built environments, indoor microbiomes, and effects on human health and well-being. It offers a research agenda to generate the information needed so that stakeholders with an interest in understanding the impacts of built environments will be able to make more informed decisions.

Microbiomes of the Built Environment: A Research Agenda for Indoor Microbiology, Human Health, and Buildings

Building on an increasingly sophisticated understanding of naturally occurring biological processes, researchers have developed technologies to predictably modify or create organisms or biological components. This research, known collectively as synthetic biology, is being pursued for a variety of purposes, from reducing the burden of disease to improving agricultural yields to remediating pollution. While synthetic biology is being pursued primarily for beneficial and legitimate purposes, it is possible to imagine malicious uses that could threaten human health or military readiness and performance. Making informed decisions about how to address such concerns requires a comprehensive, realistic assessment. To this end, the U.S. Department of Defense, working with other agencies involved in biodefense, asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to develop a framework to guide an assessment of the security concerns related to advances in synthetic biology, to assess the level of concern warranted for various advances and identify areas of vulnerability, and to prioritize options to address these vulnerabilities.

This interim report proposes a framework for identifying and prioritizing potential areas of concern associated with synthetic biology—a tool to aid the consideration of concerns related to synthetic biology. The framework describes categories of synthetic biology technologies and applications—such as genome editing, directed evolution, and automated biological design—and provides a set of initial questions to guide the assessment of concern related to these technologies and applications.

A Proposed Framework for Identifying Potential Biodefense Vulnerabilities Posed by Synthetic Biology: Interim Report

Genome editing is a powerful new tool for making precise alterations to an organism's genetic material. Recent scientific advances have made genome editing more efficient, precise, and flexible than ever before. These advances have spurred an explosion of interest from around the globe in the possible ways in which genome editing can improve human health. The speed at which these technologies are being developed and applied has led many policymakers and stakeholders to express concern about whether appropriate systems are in place to govern these technologies and how and when the public should be engaged in these decisions.

Human Genome Editing considers important questions about the human application of genome editing including: balancing potential benefits with unintended risks, governing the use of genome editing, incorporating societal values into clinical applications and policy decisions, and respecting the inevitable differences across nations and cultures that will shape how and whether to use these new technologies. This report proposes criteria for heritable germline editing, provides conclusions on the crucial need for public education and engagement, and presents 7 general principles for the governance of human genome editing.

Human Genome Editing: Science, Ethics, and Governance

Between 1973 and 2016, the ways to manipulate DNA to endow new characteristics in an organism (that is, biotechnology) have advanced, enabling the development of products that were not previously possible. What will the likely future products of biotechnology be over the next 5–10 years? What scientific capabilities, tools, and/or expertise may be needed by the regulatory agencies to ensure they make efficient and sound evaluations of the likely future products of biotechnology?

Preparing for Future Products of Biotechnology analyzes the future landscape of biotechnology products and seeks to inform forthcoming policy making. This report identifies potential new risks and frameworks for risk assessment and areas in which the risks or lack of risks relating to the products of biotechnology are well understood.

Preparing for Future Products of Biotechnology

Regenerative medicine holds the potential to create living, functional cells and tissues that can be used to repair or replace those that have suffered potentially irreparable damage due to disease, age, traumatic injury, or genetic and congenital defects. The field of regenerative medicine is broad and includes research and development components of gene and cell therapies, tissue engineering, and non-biologic constructs. Although regenerative medicine has the potential to improve health and deliver economic benefits, this relatively new field faces challenges to developing policies and procedures to support the development of novel therapies are both safe and effective.

In October 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a public workshop with the goal of developing a broad understanding of the opportunities and challenges associated with regenerative medicine cellular therapies and related technologies. Participants explored the state of the science of cell-based regenerative therapies within the larger context of patient care and policy. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Exploring the State of the Science in the Field of Regenerative Medicine: Challenges of and Opportunities for Cellular Therapies: Proceedings of a Workshop

Undergraduate research has a rich history, and many practicing researchers point to undergraduate research experiences (UREs) as crucial to their own career success. There are many ongoing efforts to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education that focus on increasing the active engagement of students and decreasing traditional lecture-based teaching, and UREs have been proposed as a solution to these efforts and may be a key strategy for broadening participation in STEM. In light of the proposals questions have been asked about what is known about student participation in UREs, best practices in UREs design, and evidence of beneficial outcomes from UREs.

Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students provides a comprehensive overview of and insights about the current and rapidly evolving types of UREs, in an effort to improve understanding of the complexity of UREs in terms of their content, their surrounding context, the diversity of the student participants, and the opportunities for learning provided by a research experience. This study analyzes UREs by considering them as part of a learning system that is shaped by forces related to national policy, institutional leadership, and departmental culture, as well as by the interactions among faculty, other mentors, and students. The report provides a set of questions to be considered by those implementing UREs as well as an agenda for future research that can help answer questions about how UREs work and which aspects of the experiences are most powerful.

Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities

Increased access to personal biological testing and advances in personal sensor technologies are enabling members of the public to gather data about their individual and their communities’ environmental exposures. The members of the public who are using these devices and are gathering data are private users wanting to learn about their personal exposures, citizen scientists wanting to engage in research and learn more about their communities, or people working with researchers at an institution doing community-based participatory research. These trends are enhanced by the growing value that society places on open and transparent research and data sharing. They also raise a wide range of questions about how data on individual or community-based environmental exposures can be used to inform decisions about health and policies at the level of the individual, a research institution, a private company, a regulatory body, or society at large.

In November 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a 2-day workshop to explore the implications of producing and accessing individual- and community-level environmental exposure data in the United States. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Measuring Personal Environmental Exposures: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Over the last decade, several large-scale United States and international programs have been initiated to incorporate advances in molecular and cellular biology, -omics technologies, analytical methods, bioinformatics, and computational tools and methods into the field of toxicology. Similar efforts are being pursued in the field of exposure science with the goals of obtaining more accurate and complete exposure data on individuals and populations for thousands of chemicals over the lifespan; predicting exposures from use data and chemical-property information; and translating exposures between test systems and humans.

Using 21st Century Science to Improve Risk-Related Evaluations makes recommendations for integrating new scientific approaches into risk-based evaluations. This study considers the scientific advances that have occurred following the publication of the NRC reports Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy and Exposure Science in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy. Given the various ongoing lines of investigation and new data streams that have emerged, this publication proposes how best to integrate and use the emerging results in evaluating chemical risk. Using 21st Century Science to Improve Risk-Related Evaluations considers whether a new paradigm is needed for data validation, how to integrate the divergent data streams, how uncertainty might need to be characterized, and how best to communicate the new approaches so that they are understandable to various stakeholders.

Using 21st Century Science to Improve Risk-Related Evaluations

Genetically engineered (GE) crops were first introduced commercially in the 1990s. After two decades of production, some groups and individuals remain critical of the technology based on their concerns about possible adverse effects on human health, the environment, and ethical considerations. At the same time, others are concerned that the technology is not reaching its potential to improve human health and the environment because of stringent regulations and reduced public funding to develop products offering more benefits to society. While the debate about these and other questions related to the genetic engineering techniques of the first 20 years goes on, emerging genetic-engineering technologies are adding new complexities to the conversation.

Genetically Engineered Crops builds on previous related Academies reports published between 1987 and 2010 by undertaking a retrospective examination of the purported positive and adverse effects of GE crops and to anticipate what emerging genetic-engineering technologies hold for the future. This report indicates where there are uncertainties about the economic, agronomic, health, safety, or other impacts of GE crops and food, and makes recommendations to fill gaps in safety assessments, increase regulatory clarity, and improve innovations in and access to GE technology.

Genetically Engineered Crops: Experiences and Prospects

Since its publication by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1984, Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) has become the cornerstone of the practice of biosafety in the United States and in many countries around the world. The BMBL has been revised periodically over the past three decades to refine the guidance it provides based on new knowledge and experiences—allowing it to remain a relevant, valuable, and authoritative reference for the microbiological and biomedical community.

Seven years after the release of the BMBL 5th Edition, NIH and CDC are considering a revision based on the comments of a broader set of stakeholders. At the request of NIH, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine conducted a virtual town hall meeting from 4 April to 20 May 2016 to allow BMBL users to share their thoughts on the BMBL in general and its individual sections and appendices. Specifically, users were asked to indicate what information they think should be added, revised, or deleted. Major themes from the virtual town hall meeting were further discussed in a workshop held on 12 May 2016 in Washington, DC. This document encapsulates the discussion of the major comments on the BMBL that were posted on the virtual town hall prior to 12 May 2016 and the various BMBL comments and issues related to biosafety that were raised during the workshop by participants who attended the meeting in Washington DC and those who listened to the live webcast.

Soliciting Stakeholder Input for a Revision of Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL): Proceedings of a Workshop

Research on gene drive systems is rapidly advancing. Many proposed applications of gene drive research aim to solve environmental and public health challenges, including the reduction of poverty and the burden of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue, which disproportionately impact low and middle income countries. However, due to their intrinsic qualities of rapid spread and irreversibility, gene drive systems raise many questions with respect to their safety relative to public and environmental health. Because gene drive systems are designed to alter the environments we share in ways that will be hard to anticipate and impossible to completely roll back, questions about the ethics surrounding use of this research are complex and will require very careful exploration.

Gene Drives on the Horizon outlines the state of knowledge relative to the science, ethics, public engagement, and risk assessment as they pertain to research directions of gene drive systems and governance of the research process. This report offers principles for responsible practices of gene drive research and related applications for use by investigators, their institutions, the research funders, and regulators.

Gene Drives on the Horizon: Advancing Science, Navigating Uncertainty, and Aligning Research with Public Values

On March 10-11, 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a public symposium on potential U.S. government policies for the oversight of gain-of- function (GOF) research. This was the Academies' second meeting held at the request of the U.S. government to provide a mechanism to engage the life sciences community and the broader public and solicit feedback on optimal approaches to ensure effective federal oversight of GOF research as part of a broader U.S. government deliberative process.

The first symposium, held in December 2014, examined the underlying scientific and technical questions surrounding the potential risks and benefits of GOF research involving pathogens with pandemic potential. The second symposium focused on discussion of the draft recommendations regarding GOF research of a Working Group of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. This report summarizes the key issues and ideas identified during the second symposium.

Gain-of-Function Research: Summary of the Second Symposium, March 10-11, 2016

New biochemical tools have made it possible to change the DNA sequences of living organisms with unprecedented ease and precision. These new tools have generated great excitement in the scientific and medical communities because of their potential to advance biological understanding, alter the genomes of microbes, plants, and animals, and treat human diseases. They also have raised profound questions about how people may choose to alter not only their own DNA but the genomes of future generations.

To explore the many questions surrounding the use of gene editing tools in humans, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the Royal Society, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences hosted an international summit in December 2015 to present and deliberate on the scientific, ethical, legal, social, and governance issues associated with human gene editing.

International Summit on Human Gene Editing: A Global Discussion

Does the public trust science? Scientists? Scientific organizations? What roles do trust and the lack of trust play in public debates about how science can be used to address such societal concerns as childhood vaccination, cancer screening, and a warming planet? What could happen if social trust in science or scientists faded? These types of questions led the Roundtable on Public Interfaces of the Life Sciences of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a 2-day workshop on May 5-6, 2015 on public trust in science.

This report explores empirical evidence on public opinion and attitudes toward life sciences as they relate to societal issues, whether and how contentious debate about select life science topics mediates trust, and the roles that scientists, business, media, community groups, and other stakeholders play in creating and maintaining public confidence in life sciences. Does the Public Trust Science? Trust and Confidence at the Interfaces of the Life Sciences and Society highlights research on the elements of trust and how to build, mend, or maintain trust; and examine best practices in the context of scientist engagement with lay audiences around social issues.

Trust and Confidence at the Interfaces of the Life Sciences and Society: Does the Public Trust Science? A Workshop Summary

The US Department of Defense (DOD) is faced with an overwhelming task in evaluating chemicals that could potentially pose a threat to its deployed personnel. There are over 84,000 registered chemicals, and testing them with traditional toxicity-testing methods is not feasible in terms of time or money. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to develop new approaches to toxicity testing that incorporate advances in systems biology, toxicogenomics, bioinformatics, and computational toxicology. Given the advances, DOD asked the National Research Council to determine how DOD could use modern approaches for predicting chemical toxicity in its efforts to prevent debilitating, acute exposures to deployed personnel. This report provides an overall conceptual approach that DOD could use to develop a predictive toxicology system. Application of Modern Toxicology Approaches for Predicting Acute Toxicity for Chemical Defense reviews the current state of computational and high-throughput approaches for predicting acute toxicity and suggests methods for integrating data and predictions. This report concludes with lessons learned from current high-throughput screening programs and suggests some initial steps for DOD investment.

Application of Modern Toxicology Approaches for Predicting Acute Toxicity for Chemical Defense

From its very beginning, neuroscience has been fundamentally interdisciplinary. As a result of rapid technological advances and the advent of large collaborative projects, however, neuroscience is expanding well beyond traditional subdisciplines and intellectual boundaries to rely on expertise from many other fields, such as engineering, computer science, and applied mathematics. This raises important questions about to how to develop and train the next generation of neuroscientists to ensure innovation in research and technology in the neurosciences. In addition, the advent of new types of data and the growing importance of large datasets raise additional questions about how to train students in approaches to data analysis and sharing. These concerns dovetail with the need to teach improved scientific practices ranging from experimental design (e.g., powering of studies and appropriate blinding) to improved sophistication in statistics. Of equal importance is the increasing need not only for basic researchers and teams that will develop the next generation of tools, but also for investigators who are able to bridge the translational gap between basic and clinical neuroscience.

Developing a 21st Century Neuroscience Workforce is the summary of a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders on October 28 and 29,2014, in Washington, DC, to explore future workforce needs and how these needs should inform training programs. Workshop participants considered what new subdisciplines and collaborations might be needed, including an examination of opportunities for cross-training of neuroscience research programs with other areas. In addition, current and new components of training programs were discussed to identify methods for enhancing data handling and analysis capabilities, increasing scientific accuracy, and improving research practices. This report highlights the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Developing a 21st Century Neuroscience Workforce: Workshop Summary

The National Research Council's Roundtable on Public Interfaces of the Life Sciences held a 2-day workshop on January 15-16, 2015, in Washington, DC to explore the public interfaces between scientists and citizens in the context of genetically engineered (GE) organisms. The workshop presentations and discussions dealt with perspectives on scientific engagement in a world where science is interpreted through a variety of lenses, including cultural values and political dispositions, and with strategies based on evidence in social science to improve public conversation about controversial topics in science. The workshop focused on public perceptions and debates about genetically engineered plants and animals, commonly known as genetically modified organisms (GMOs), because the development and application of GMOs are heavily debated among some stakeholders, including scientists. For some applications of GMOs, the societal debate is so contentious that it can be difficult for members of the public, including policy-makers, to make decisions. Thus, although the workshop focused on issues related to public interfaces with the life science that apply to many science policy debates, the discussions are particularly relevant for anyone involved with the GMO debate. Public Engagement on Genetically Modified Organisms: When Science and Citizens Connect summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Public Engagement on Genetically Modified Organisms: When Science and Citizens Connect: Workshop Summary

On October 17, 2014, spurred by incidents at U.S. government laboratories that raised serious biosafety concerns, the United States government launched a one-year deliberative process to address the continuing controversy surrounding so-called "gain-of-function" (GOF) research on respiratory pathogens with pandemic potential. The gain of function controversy began in late 2011 with the question of whether to publish the results of two experiments involving H5N1 avian influenza and continued to focus on certain research with highly pathogenic avian influenza over the next three years. The heart of the U.S. process is an evaluation of the potential risks and benefits of certain types of GOF experiments with influenza, SARS, and MERS viruses that would inform the development and adoption of a new U.S. Government policy governing the funding and conduct of GOF research.

Potential Risks and Benefits of Gain-of-Function Research is the summary of a two-day public symposia on GOF research. Convened in December 2014 by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, the main focus of this event was to discuss principles important for, and key considerations in, the design of risk and benefit assessments of GOF research. Participants examined the underlying scientific and technical questions that are the source of current discussion and debate over GOF research involving pathogens with pandemic potential. This report is a record of the presentations and discussion of the meeting.

Potential Risks and Benefits of Gain-of-Function Research: Summary of a Workshop

For over a century, field stations have been important entryways for scientists to study and make important discoveries about the natural world. They are centers of research, conservation, education, and public outreach, often embedded in natural environments that range from remote to densely populated urban locations. Because they lack traditional university departmental boundaries, researchers at field stations have the opportunity to converge their science disciplines in ways that can change careers and entire fields of inquiry. Field stations provide physical space for immersive research, hands-on learning, and new collaborations that are otherwise hard to achieve in the everyday bustle of research and teaching lives on campus. But the separation from university campuses that allows creativity to flourish also creates challenges. Sometimes, field stations are viewed as remote outposts and are overlooked because they tend to be away from population centers and their home institutions. This view is exacerbated by the lack of empirical evidence that can be used to demonstrate their value to science and society.

Enhancing the Value and Sustainability of Field Stations and Marine Laboratories in the 21st Century summarizes field stations' value to science, education, and outreach and evaluates their contributions to research, innovation, and education. This report suggests strategies to meet future research, education, outreach, infrastructure, funding, and logistical needs of field stations. Today's technologies - such as streaming data, remote sensing, robot-driven monitoring, automated DNA sequencing, and nanoparticle environmental sensors - provide means for field stations to retain their special connection to nature and still interact with the rest of the world in ways that can fuel breakthroughs in the environmental, physical, natural, and social sciences. The intellectual and natural capital of today's field stations present a solid platform, but many need enhancements of infrastructure and dynamic leadership if they are to meet the challenges of the complex problems facing the world. This report focuses on the capability of field stations to address societal needs today and in the future.

Enhancing the Value and Sustainability of Field Stations and Marine Laboratories in the 21st Century

Microbial forensics is a scientific discipline dedicated to analyzing evidence from a bioterrorism act, biocrime, or inadvertent microorganism or toxin release for attribution purposes. This emerging discipline seeks to offer investigators the tools and techniques to support efforts to identify the source of a biological threat agent and attribute a biothreat act to a particular person or group. Microbial forensics is still in the early stages of development and faces substantial scientific challenges to continue to build capacity.

The unlawful use of biological agents poses substantial dangers to individuals, public health, the environment, the economies of nations, and global peace. It also is likely that scientific, political, and media-based controversy will surround any investigation of the alleged use of a biological agent, and can be expected to affect significantly the role that scientific information or evidence can play. For these reasons, building awareness of and capacity in microbial forensics can assist in our understanding of what may have occurred during a biothreat event, and international collaborations that engage the broader scientific and policy-making communities are likely to strengthen our microbial forensics capabilities. One goal would be to create a shared technical understanding of the possibilities - and limitations - of the scientific bases for microbial forensics analysis.

Science Needs for Microbial Forensics: Developing Initial International Research Priorities , based partly on a workshop held in Zabgreb, Croatia in 2013, identifies scientific needs that must be addressed to improve the capabilities of microbial forensics to investigate infectious disease outbreaks and provide evidence of sufficient quality to support legal proceedings and the development of government policies. This report discusses issues of sampling, validation, data sharing, reference collection, research priorities, global disease monitoring, and training and education to promote international collaboration and further advance the field.

Science Needs for Microbial Forensics: Developing Initial International Research Priorities

Stem cells offer tremendous promise for advancing health and medicine. Whether being used to replace damaged cells and organs or else by supporting the body's intrinsic repair mechanisms, stem cells hold the potential to treat such debilitating conditions as Parkinson's disease, diabetes, and spinal cord injury. Clinical trials of stem cell treatments are under way in countries around the world, but the evidence base to support the medical use of stem cells remains limited. Despite this paucity of clinical evidence, consumer demand for treatments using stem cells has risen, driven in part by a lack of available treatment options for debilitating diseases as well as direct-to-consumer advertising and public portrayals of stem cell-based treatments. Clinics that offer stem cell therapies for a wide range of diseases and conditions have been established throughout the world, both in newly industrialized countries such as China, India, and Mexico and in developed countries such as the United States and various European nations. Though these therapies are often promoted as being established and effective, they generally have not received stringent regulatory oversight and have not been tested with rigorous trials designed to determine their safety and likely benefits. In the absence of substantiated claims, the potential for harm to patients - as well as to the field of stem cell research in general - may outweigh the potential benefits.

To explore these issues, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, and the International Society for Stem Cell Research held a workshop in November 2013. Stem Cell Therapies summarizes the workshop. Researchers, clinicians, patients, policy makers, and others from North America, Europe, and Asia met to examine the global pattern of treatments and products being offered, the range of patient experiences, and options to maximize the well-being of patients, either by protecting them from treatments that are dangerous or ineffective or by steering them toward treatments that are effective. This report discusses the current environment in which patients are receiving unregulated stem cell offerings, focusing on the treatments being offered and their risks and benefits. The report considers the evidence base for clinical application of stem cell technologies and ways to assure the quality of stem cell offerings.

Stem Cell Therapies: Opportunities for Ensuring the Quality and Safety of Clinical Offerings: Summary of a Joint Workshop by the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, and the International Society for Stem Cell Research

Convergence of the life sciences with fields including physical, chemical, mathematical, computational, engineering, and social sciences is a key strategy to tackle complex challenges and achieve new and innovative solutions. However, institutions face a lack of guidance on how to establish effective programs, what challenges they are likely to encounter, and what strategies other organizations have used to address the issues that arise. This advice is needed to harness the excitement generated by the concept of convergence and channel it into the policies, structures, and networks that will enable it to realize its goals.

Convergence investigates examples of organizations that have established mechanisms to support convergent research. This report discusses details of current programs, how organizations have chosen to measure success, and what has worked and not worked in varied settings. The report summarizes the lessons learned and provides organizations with strategies to tackle practical needs and implementation challenges in areas such as infrastructure, student education and training, faculty advancement, and inter-institutional partnerships.

Convergence: Facilitating Transdisciplinary Integration of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Beyond

Advances in the life sciences - from the human genome to biotechnology to personalized medicine and sustainable communities - have profound implications for the well-being of society and the natural world. Improved public understanding of such scientific advances has the potential to benefit both individuals and society through enhanced quality of life and environmental protection, improved K-12 and undergraduate science education, greater understanding of human connections to the natural world, and more sustainable policies and regulations. Yet few systems of support exist to help life scientist communicators share their research with a broad range of public audiences, or engage the public in discussions about their work.

Sustainable Infrastructures for Life Science Communication is the summary of a two-part workshop convened in December 2013 and January 2014 by the National Research Council Roundtable on Public Interfaces of the Life Sciences to identify infrastructure-related barriers that inhibit or prohibit life scientists from communicating about their work and characteristics of infrastructure that facilitate or encourage scientists to engage with public audiences. The workshop featured both formal presentations and panel discussions among participants from academia, industry, journalism, the federal government, and nonprofit organizations. The presentations highlighted the motivations of and challenges to life scientist communicators, theoretical approaches to science communication, examples of different types of infrastructure to support science communication, and the need for building more sustainable science communication infrastructures. This report considers communication infrastructure across a range of life science institutions, including federal agencies, academia, industry, and nonprofit organizations and explores novel approaches to facilitate effective science communication.

Sustainable Infrastructures for Life Science Communication: Workshop Summary

Synthetic biology -- unlike any research discipline that precedes it -- has the potential to bypass the less predictable process of evolution to usher in a new and dynamic way of working with living systems. Ultimately, synthetic biologists hope to design and build engineered biological systems with capabilities that do not exist in natural systems -- capabilities that may ultimately be used for applications in manufacturing, food production, and global health. Importantly, synthetic biology represents an area of science and engineering that raises technical, ethical, regulatory, security, biosafety, intellectual property, and other issues that will be resolved differently in different parts of the world. As a better understanding of the global synthetic biology landscape could lead to tremendous benefits, six academies -- the United Kingdom's Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, the United States' National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, and the Chinese Academy of Science and Chinese Academy of Engineering -- organized a series of international symposia on the scientific, technical, and policy issues associated with synthetic biology. Positioning Synthetic Biology to Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century summarizes the symposia proceedings.

Positioning Synthetic Biology to Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century: Summary Report of a Six Academies Symposium Series

Spurred on by new discoveries and rapid technological advances, the capacity for life science research is expanding across the globe—and with it comes concerns about the unintended impacts of research on the physical and biological environment, human well-being, or the deliberate misuse of knowledge, tools, and techniques to cause harm. This report describes efforts to address dual use issues by developing institutes around the world that will help life sciences faculty learn to teach about the responsible conduct of science. Based on the successful National Academies Summer Institute for Undergraduate Biology Education and on previous NRC reports on effective methods for teaching about dual use issues, the report's authoring committee designed a general framework for the faculty institutes and chose the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region to test a prototype faculty institute.

In September 2012, the first Institute was held in Aqaba, Jordan, bringing together 28 participants from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, and Yemen to engage with effective, evidence-based teaching methods, develop curricular materials for use in their own classrooms, and become community leaders on dual use and related topics. Developing Capacities for Teaching Responsible Science in the MENA Region: Refashioning Scientific Dialogue offers insights from the institute that will help in the design and implementation of future programs in the MENA region, and in other parts of the world.

Developing Capacities for Teaching Responsible Science in the MENA Region: Refashioning Scientific Dialogue

When, in late 2011, it became public knowledge that two research groups had submitted for publication manuscripts that reported on their work on mammalian transmissibility of a lethal H5N1 avian influenza strain, the information caused an international debate about the appropriateness and communication of the researchers' work, the risks associated with the work, partial or complete censorship of scientific publications, and dual-use research of concern in general.

Recognizing that the H5N1 research is only the most recent scientific activity subject to widespread attention due to safety and security concerns, on May 1, 2012, the National Research Council's Committee on Science, Technology and Law, in conjunction with the Board on Life Sciences and the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Microbial Threats, convened a one-day public workshop for the purposes of 1) discussing the H5N1 controversy; 2) considering responses by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which had funded this research, the World Health Organization, the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), scientific publishers, and members of the international research community; and 3) providing a forum wherein the concerns and interests of the broader community of stakeholders, including policy makers, biosafety and biosecurity experts, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and the general public might be articulated.

Perspectives on Research with H5N1 Avian Influenza: Scientific Enquiry, Communication, Controversy summarizes the proceedings of the workshop.

Perspectives on Research with H5N1 Avian Influenza: Scientific Inquiry, Communication, Controversy: Summary of a Workshop

Outbreaks of animal disease can have catastrophic repercussions for animal agriculture, the food supply, and public health. Rapid detection, diagnosis and response, as well as development of new vaccines, are central to mitigating the impact of disease outbreaks. The proposed National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) is a next-generation laboratory for animal disease diagnostics, training, and research that would provide core critical components for defense against foreign animal and zoonotic disease threats. But it will be a major investment with estimated construction costs of $1.14 billion, as currently designed.

Meeting Critical Laboratory Needs for Animal Agriculture: Examination of Three Options discusses the laboratory infrastructure needed to effectively address the threat posed by animal and zoonotic diseases and analyzes three options for creating this infrastructure: building NBAF as currently designed, building a scaled-back version of the NBAF, or maintaining current research capabilities at Plum Island Animal Disease Center while leveraging biosafety level-4 large animal capabilities at foreign laboratories.

Meeting Critical Laboratory Needs for Animal Agriculture: Examination of Three Options

In many countries, colleges and universities are where the majority of innovative research is done; in all cases, they are where future scientists receive both their initial training and their initial introduction to the norms of scientific conduct regardless of their eventual career paths. Thus, institutions of higher education are particularly relevant to the tasks of education on research with dual use potential, whether for faculty, postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, or technical staff.

Research in the Life Sciences with Dual Use Potential describes the outcomes of the planning meeting for a two-year project to develop a network of faculty who will be able to teach the challenges of research in the life sciences with dual use potential. Faculty will be able to incorporate such concepts into their teaching and research through exposure to the tenets of responsible conduct of research in active learning teaching methods. This report is intended to provide guidelines for that effort and to be applicable to any country wishing to adopt this educational model that combines principles of active learning and training with attention to norms of responsible science. The potential audiences include a broad array of current and future scientists and the policymakers who develop laws and regulations around issues of dual use.

Research in the Life Sciences with Dual Use Potential: An International Faculty Development Project on Education About the Responsible Conduct of Science

Motivated by the explosion of molecular data on humans-particularly data associated with individual patients-and the sense that there are large, as-yet-untapped opportunities to use this data to improve health outcomes, Toward Precision Medicine explores the feasibility and need for "a new taxonomy of human disease based on molecular biology" and develops a potential framework for creating one.

The book says that a new data network that integrates emerging research on the molecular makeup of diseases with clinical data on individual patients could drive the development of a more accurate classification of diseases and ultimately enhance diagnosis and treatment. The "new taxonomy" that emerges would define diseases by their underlying molecular causes and other factors in addition to their traditional physical signs and symptoms. The book adds that the new data network could also improve biomedical research by enabling scientists to access patients' information during treatment while still protecting their rights. This would allow the marriage of molecular research and clinical data at the point of care, as opposed to research information continuing to reside primarily in academia.

Toward Precision Medicine notes that moving toward individualized medicine requires that researchers and health care providers have access to very large sets of health- and disease-related data linked to individual patients. These data are also critical for developing the information commons, the knowledge network of disease, and ultimately the new taxonomy.

Toward Precision Medicine: Building a Knowledge Network for Biomedical Research and a New Taxonomy of Disease

During the last decade, national and international scientific organizations have become increasingly engaged in considering how to respond to the biosecurity implications of developments in the life sciences and in assessing trends in science and technology (S&T) relevant to biological and chemical weapons nonproliferation. The latest example is an international workshop, Trends in Science and Technology Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention, held October 31 - November 3, 2010 at the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Life Sciences and Related Fields summarizes the workshop, plenary, and breakout discussion sessions held during this convention. Given the immense diversity of current research and development, the report is only able to provide an overview of the areas of science and technology the committee believes are potentially relevant to the future of the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BWC), although there is an effort to identify areas that seemed particularly ripe for further exploration and analysis. The report offers findings and conclusions organized around three fundamental and frequently cited trends in S&T that affect the scope and operation of the convention:

• The rapid pace of change in the life sciences and related fields;
• The increasing diffusion of life sciences research capacity and its applications, both internationally and beyond traditional research institutions; and
• The extent to which additional scientific and technical disciplines beyond biology are increasingly involved in life sciences research.

The report does not make recommendations about policy options to respond to the implications of the identified trends. The choice of such responses rests with the 164 States Parties to the Convention, who must take into account multiple factors beyond the project's focus on the state of the science.

Life Sciences and Related Fields: Trends Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention

Less than a month after the September 11, 2001 attacks, letters containing spores of anthrax bacteria (Bacillus anthracis, or B. anthracis) were sent through the U.S. mail. Between October 4 and November 20, 2001, 22 individuals developed anthrax; 5 of the cases were fatal.

During its investigation of the anthrax mailings, the FBI worked with other federal agencies to coordinate and conduct scientific analyses of the anthrax letter spore powders, environmental samples, clinical samples, and samples collected from laboratories that might have been the source of the letter-associated spores. The agency relied on external experts, including some who had developed tests to differentiate among strains of B. anthracis. In 2008, seven years into the investigation, the FBI asked the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to conduct an independent review of the scientific approaches used during the investigation of the 2001 B. anthracis mailings. Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI's Investigation of the Anthrax Letters evaluates the scientific foundation for the techniques used by the FBI to determine whether these techniques met appropriate standards for scientific reliability and for use in forensic validation, and whether the FBI reached appropriate scientific conclusions from its use of these techniques. This report reviews and assesses scientific evidence considered in connection with the 2001 Bacillus anthracis mailings.

Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI's Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters

This report offers a summary of the substantive presentations during an international workshop, Trends in Science and Technology Relevant to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, held October 31 - November 3, 2010 at the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is meant to provide scientists and other technical experts with factual information about the range and variety of topics discussed at the workshop, which may be of interest to national governments and non-governmental organizations as they begin to prepare for the 7th Review Conference of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) in 2011.

The Beijing workshop reflected the continuing engagement by national academies international scientific organizations, and individual scientists and engineers in considering the biosecurity implications of developments in the life sciences and assessing trends in science and technology (S&T) relevant to nonproliferation. The workshop provided an opportunity for the scientific community to discuss the implications of relevant developments in S&T for multiple aspects of the BWC.

Trends in Science and Technology Relevant to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention follows the structure of the plenary sessions at the workshop. It begins with introductory material about the BWC and current examples of the types and modes of science advice available to the BWC and other international nonproliferation and disarmament agreements, in particular the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). This report includes only a very brief description of the some of the post-presentation discussions held during the plenary sessions - and does not include an account of the small breakout groups - since these were intended to inform the committee's finding and conclusions and will be reflected in the final report.

Trends in Science and Technology Relevant to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention: Summary of an International Workshop

The Challenges and Opportunities for Education About Dual Use Issues in the Life Sciences workshop was held to engage the life sciences community on the particular security issues related to research with dual use potential. More than 60 participants from almost 30 countries took part and included practicing life scientists, bioethics and biosecurity practitioners, and experts in the design of educational programs. The workshop sought to identify a baseline about (1) the extent to which dual use issues are currently being included in postsecondary education (undergraduate and postgraduate) in the life sciences; (2) in what contexts that education is occurring (e.g., in formal coursework, informal settings, as stand-alone subjects or part of more general training, and in what fields); and (3) what online educational materials addressing research in the life sciences with dual use potential already exist.

Challenges and Opportunities for Education About Dual Use Issues in the Life Sciences

Congress requested that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) produce a site-specific biosafety and biosecurity risk assessment (SSRA) of the proposed National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kansas. The laboratory would study dangerous foreign animal diseases—including the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which affects cattle, pigs, deer, and other cloven-hoofed animals—and diseases deadly to humans that can be transmitted between animals and people. Congress also asked the Research Council to review the validity and adequacy of the document. Until these studies are complete, Congress has withheld funds to build the NBAF. Upon review of the DHS assessment, the National Research Council found "several major shortcomings." Based on the DHS risk assessment, there is nearly a 70 percent chance over the 50-year lifetime of the facility that a release of FMD could result in an infection outside the laboratory, impacting the economy by estimates of $9 billion to $50 billion. The present Research Council report says the risks and costs of a pathogen being accidently released from the facility could be significantly higher. The committee found that the SSRA has many legitimate conclusions, but it was concerned that the assessment does not fully account for how a Biosafety-Level 3 Agriculture and Biosafety-Level 4 Pathogen facility would operate or how pathogens might be accidently released. In particular, the SSRA does not include important operation risks and mitigation issues, such as the risk associated with the daily cleaning of large animal rooms. It also fails to address risks that would likely increase the chances of an FMD leak or of the disease's spread after a leak, including the NBAF's close proximity to the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine clinics and KSU football stadium or personnel moving among KSU facilities.

Evaluation of a Site-Specific Risk Assessment for the Department of Homeland Security's Planned National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas

Select Agents are defined in regulations through a list of names of particularly dangerous known bacteria, viruses, toxins, and fungi. However, natural variation and intentional genetic modification blur the boundaries of any discrete Select Agent list based on names. Access to technologies that can generate or 'synthesize' any DNA sequence is expanding, making it easier and less expensive for researchers, industry scientists, and amateur users to create organisms without needing to obtain samples of existing stocks or cultures. This has led to growing concerns that these DNA synthesis technologies might be used to synthesize Select Agents, modify such agents by introducing small changes to the genetic sequence, or create entirely new pathogens. Amid these concerns, the National Institutes of Health requested that the Research Council investigate the science and technology needed to replace the current Select Agent list with an oversight system that predicts if a DNA sequence could be used to produce an organism that should be regulated as a Select Agent. A DNA sequence-based system to better define when a pathogen or toxin is subject to Select Agent regulations could be developed. This could be coupled with a 'yellow flag' system that would recognize requests to synthesize suspicious sequences and serve as a reference to anyone with relevant questions, allowing for appropriate follow-up. Sequence-Based Classification of Select Agents finds that replacing the current list of Select Agents with a system that could predict if fragments of DNA sequences could be used to produce novel pathogens with Select Agent characteristics is not feasible. However, it emphasized that for the foreseeable future, any threat from synthetic biology and synthetic genomics is far more likely to come from assembling known Select Agents, or modifications of them, rather than construction of previously unknown agents. Therefore, the book recommends modernizing the regulations to define Select Agents in terms of their gene sequences, not by their names, and called this 'sequence-based classification.'

Sequence-Based Classification of Select Agents: A Brighter Line

In 2005, the National Academies released the book, Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research , which offered a common set of ethical standards for a field that, due to the absence of comprehensive federal funding, was lacking national standards for research. In order to keep the Guidelines up to date, given the rapid pace of scientific and policy developments in the field of stem cell research, the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee was established in 2006 with support from The Ellison Medical Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. As it did in 2007 and 2008, the Committee identified issues that warranted revision, and this book addresses those issues in a third and final set of amendments. Specifically, this book sets out an updated version of the National Academies' Guidelines, one that takes into account the new, expanded role of the NIH in overseeing hES cell research. It also identifies those avenues of continuing National Academies' involvement deemed most valuable by the research community and other significant stakeholders.

Final Report of the National Academies' Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee and 2010 Amendments to the National Academies' Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Traditionally, the natural sciences have been divided into two branches: the biological sciences and the physical sciences. Today, an increasing number of scientists are addressing problems lying at the intersection of the two. These problems are most often biological in nature, but examining them through the lens of the physical sciences can yield exciting results and opportunities. For example, one area producing effective cross-discipline research opportunities centers on the dynamics of systems. Equilibrium, multistability, and stochastic behavior--concepts familiar to physicists and chemists--are now being used to tackle issues associated with living systems such as adaptation, feedback, and emergent behavior. Research at the Intersection of the Physical and Life Sciences discusses how some of the most important scientific and societal challenges can be addressed, at least in part, by collaborative research that lies at the intersection of traditional disciplines, including biology, chemistry, and physics. This book describes how some of the mysteries of the biological world are being addressed using tools and techniques developed in the physical sciences, and identifies five areas of potentially transformative research. Work in these areas would have significant impact in both research and society at large by expanding our understanding of the physical world and by revealing new opportunities for advancing public health, technology, and stewardship of the environment. This book recommends several ways to accelerate such cross-discipline research. Many of these recommendations are directed toward those administering the faculties and resources of our great research institutions--and the stewards of our research funders, making this book an excellent resource for academic and research institutions, scientists, universities, and federal and private funding agencies.

Research at the Intersection of the Physical and Life Sciences

The effort to understand and combat infectious diseases has, during the centuries, produced many key advances in science and medicine—including the development of vaccines, drugs, and other treatments. A subset of this research is conducted with agents that, like anthrax, not only pose a severe threat to the health of humans, plants, and animals but can also be used for ill-intended purposes. Such agents have been listed by the government as biological select agents and toxins. The 2001 anthrax letter attacks prompted the creation of new regulations aimed at increasing security for research with dangerous pathogens. The outcome of the anthrax letter investigation has raised concern about whether these measures are adequate. Responsible Research with Biological Select Agents and Toxins evaluates both the physical security of select agent laboratories and personnel reliability measures designed to ensure the trustworthiness of those with access to biological select agents and toxins. The book offers a set of guiding principles and recommended changes to minimize security risk and facilitate the productivity of research. The book recommends fostering a culture of trust and responsibility in the laboratory, engaging the community in oversight of the Select Agent Program, and enhancing the operation of the Select Agent Program.

Responsible Research with Biological Select Agents and Toxins

Now more than ever, biology has the potential to contribute practical solutions to many of the major challenges confronting the United States and the world. A New Biology for the 21st Century recommends that a "New Biology" approach—one that depends on greater integration within biology, and closer collaboration with physical, computational, and earth scientists, mathematicians and engineers—be used to find solutions to four key societal needs: sustainable food production, ecosystem restoration, optimized biofuel production, and improvement in human health. The approach calls for a coordinated effort to leverage resources across the federal, private, and academic sectors to help meet challenges and improve the return on life science research in general.

A New Biology for the 21st Century

During the next ten years, colleges of agriculture will be challenged to transform their role in higher education and their relationship to the evolving global food and agricultural enterprise. If successful, agriculture colleges will emerge as an important venue for scholars and stakeholders to address some of the most complex and urgent problems facing society.

Such a transformation could reestablish and sustain the historical position of the college of agriculture as a cornerstone institution in academe, but for that to occur, a rapid and concerted effort by our higher education system is needed to shape their academic focus around the reality of issues that define the world's systems of food and agriculture and to refashion the way in which they foster knowledge of those complex systems in their students. Although there is no single approach to transforming agricultural education, a commitment to change is imperative.

Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World

In order to keep the Guidelines up to date, given the rapid pace of scientific developments in the field of stem cell research, the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee was established in 2006 with support from The Ellison Medical Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

As it did in 2007, the Committee identified issues that warranted revision, and this book addresses those issues in a second set of amendments. Most importantly, this book addresses new scientific developments in reprogramming of somatic cells to pluripotency by adding a new section and revising other relevant sections of the Guidelines.

2008 Amendments to the National Academies' Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Inspired by Biology: From Molecules to Materials to Machines

Life on Earth would be impossible without plants. Humans rely on plants for most clothing, furniture, food, as well as for many pharmaceuticals and other products. Plant genome sciences are essential to understanding how plants function and how to develop desirable plant characteristics. For example, plant genomic science can contribute to the development of plants that are drought-resistant, those that require less fertilizer, and those that are optimized for conversion to fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. The National Plant Genome Initiative (NPGI) is a unique, cross-agency funding enterprise that has been funding and coordinating plant genome research successfully for nine years. Research breakthroughs from NPGI and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Arabidopsis 2010 Project, such as how the plant immune system controls pathogen defense, demonstrate that the plant genome science community is vibrant and capable of driving technological advancement. This book from the National Research Council concludes that these programs should continue so that applied programs on agriculture, bioenergy, and others will always be built on a strong foundation of fundamental plant biology research.

Achievements of the National Plant Genome Initiative and New Horizons in Plant Biology

Although its importance is not always recognized, theory is an integral part of all biological research. Biologists' theoretical and conceptual frameworks inform every step of their research, affecting what experiments they do, what techniques and technologies they develop and use, and how they interpret their data. By examining how theory can help biologists answer questions like "What are the engineering principles of life?" or "How do cells really work?" the report shows how theory synthesizes biological knowledge from the molecular level to the level of whole ecosystems. The book concludes that theory is already an inextricable thread running throughout the practice of biology; but that explicitly giving theory equal status with other components of biological research could help catalyze transformative research that will lead to creative, dynamic, and innovative advances in our understanding of life.

The Role of Theory in Advancing 21st-Century Biology: Catalyzing Transformative Research

Although we can't usually see them, microbes are essential for every part of human life—indeed all life on Earth. The emerging field of metagenomics offers a new way of exploring the microbial world that will transform modern microbiology and lead to practical applications in medicine, agriculture, alternative energy, environmental remediation, and many others areas. Metagenomics allows researchers to look at the genomes of all of the microbes in an environment at once, providing a "meta" view of the whole microbial community and the complex interactions within it. It's a quantum leap beyond traditional research techniques that rely on studying—one at a time—the few microbes that can be grown in the laboratory. At the request of the National Science Foundation, five Institutes of the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy, the National Research Council organized a committee to address the current state of metagenomics and identify obstacles current researchers are facing in order to determine how to best support the field and encourage its success. The New Science of Metagenomics recommends the establishment of a "Global Metagenomics Initiative" comprising a small number of large-scale metagenomics projects as well as many medium- and small-scale projects to advance the technology and develop the standard practices needed to advance the field. The report also addresses database needs, methodological challenges, and the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in supporting this new field.

The New Science of Metagenomics: Revealing the Secrets of Our Microbial Planet

2007 Amendments to the National Academies' Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Pollinators—insects, birds, bats, and other animals that carry pollen from the male to the female parts of flowers for plant reproduction—are an essential part of natural and agricultural ecosystems throughout North America. For example, most fruit, vegetable, and seed crops and some crops that provide fiber, drugs, and fuel depend on animals for pollination.

This report provides evidence for the decline of some pollinator species in North America, including America's most important managed pollinator, the honey bee, as well as some butterflies, bats, and hummingbirds. For most managed and wild pollinator species, however, population trends have not been assessed because populations have not been monitored over time. In addition, for wild species with demonstrated declines, it is often difficult to determine the causes or consequences of their decline. This report outlines priorities for research and monitoring that are needed to improve information on the status of pollinators and establishes a framework for conservation and restoration of pollinator species and communities.

Status of Pollinators in North America

Since 1998, the volume of research being conducted using human embryonic stem (hES) cells has expanded primarily using private funds because of restrictions on the use of federal funds for such research. Given limited federal involvement, privately funded hES cell research has thus far been carried out under a patchwork of existing regulations, many of which were not designed with this research specifically in mind. In addition, hES cell research touches on many ethical, legal, scientific, and policy issues that are of concern to the public. This report provides guidelines for the conduct of hES cell research to address both ethical and scientific concerns. The guidelines are intended to enhance the integrity of privately funded hES cell research by encouraging responsible practices in the conduct of that research.

Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Bridges to Independence: Fostering the Independence of New Investigators in Biomedical Research

Seeking Security: Pathogens, Open Access, and Genome Databases

Funding Smithsonian Scientific Research

Biological sciences have been revolutionized, not only in the way research is conducted—with the introduction of techniques such as recombinant DNA and digital technology—but also in how research findings are communicated among professionals and to the public. Yet, the undergraduate programs that train biology researchers remain much the same as they were before these fundamental changes came on the scene.

This new volume provides a blueprint for bringing undergraduate biology education up to the speed of today's research fast track. It includes recommendations for teaching the next generation of life science investigators, through:

• Building a strong interdisciplinary curriculum that includes physical science, information technology, and mathematics.
• Eliminating the administrative and financial barriers to cross-departmental collaboration.
• Evaluating the impact of medical college admissions testing on undergraduate biology education.
• Creating early opportunities for independent research.
• Designing meaningful laboratory experiences into the curriculum.

The committee presents a dozen brief case studies of exemplary programs at leading institutions and lists many resources for biology educators. This volume will be important to biology faculty, administrators, practitioners, professional societies, research and education funders, and the biotechnology industry.

BIO2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists

The National Plant Genome Initiative: Objectives for 2003-2008

Stem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine

From earliest times, human beings have noticed patterns in nature: night and day, tides and lunar cycles, the changing seasons, plant succession, and animal migration. While recognizing patterns conferred great survival advantage, we are now in danger from our own success in multiplying our numbers and altering those patterns for our own purposes.

It is imperative that we engage again with the patterns of nature, but this time, with awareness of our impact as a species. How will burgeoning human populations affect the health of ecosystems? Is loss of species simply a regrettable byproduct of human expansion? Or is the planet passing into a new epoch in just a few human generations?

Nature and Human Society presents a wide-ranging exploration of these and other fundamental questions about our relationship with the environment. This book features findings, insights, and informed speculations from key figures in the field: E.O. Wilson, Thomas Lovejoy, Peter H. Raven, Gretchen Daily, David Suzuki, Norman Myers, Paul Erlich, Michael Bean, and many others.

This volume explores the accelerated extinction of species and what we stand to lose—medicines, energy sources, crop pollination and pest control, the ability of water and soil to renew itself through biological processes, aesthetic and recreational benefits—and how these losses may be felt locally and acutely.

What are the specific threats to biodiversity? The book explores human population growth, the homogenization of biota as a result in tourism and trade, and other factors, including the social influences of law, religious belief, and public education.

Do we have the tools to protect biodiversity? The book looks at molecular genetics, satellite data, tools borrowed from medicine, and other scientific techniques to firm up our grasp of important processes in biology and earth science, including the "new" science of conservation biology.

Nature and Human Society helps us renew our understanding and appreciation for natural patterns, with surprising details about microorganisms, nematodes, and other overlooked forms of life: their numbers, pervasiveness, and importance to the health of the soil, water, and air and to a host of human endeavors.

This book will be of value to anyone who believes that the world's gross natural product is as important as the world's gross national product.

Nature and Human Society: The Quest for a Sustainable World

In 1992 the National Research Council issued DNA Technology in Forensic Science , a book that documented the state of the art in this emerging field. Recently, this volume was brought to worldwide attention in the murder trial of celebrity O. J. Simpson. The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence reports on developments in population genetics and statistics since the original volume was published. The committee comments on statements in the original book that proved controversial or that have been misapplied in the courts. This volume offers recommendations for handling DNA samples, performing calculations, and other aspects of using DNA as a forensic tool—modifying some recommendations presented in the 1992 volume. The update addresses two major areas:

• Determination of DNA profiles. The committee considers how laboratory errors (particularly false matches) can arise, how errors might be reduced, and how to take into account the fact that the error rate can never be reduced to zero.
• Interpretation of a finding that the DNA profile of a suspect or victim matches the evidence DNA. The committee addresses controversies in population genetics, exploring the problems that arise from the mixture of groups and subgroups in the American population and how this substructure can be accounted for in calculating frequencies.

This volume examines statistical issues in interpreting frequencies as probabilities, including adjustments when a suspect is found through a database search. The committee includes a detailed discussion of what its recommendations would mean in the courtroom, with numerous case citations. By resolving several remaining issues in the evaluation of this increasingly important area of forensic evidence, this technical update will be important to forensic scientists and population geneticists—and helpful to attorneys, judges, and others who need to understand DNA and the law. Anyone working in laboratories and in the courts or anyone studying this issue should own this book.

The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence

There is growing enthusiasm in the scientific community about the prospect of mapping and sequencing the human genome, a monumental project that will have far-reaching consequences for medicine, biology, technology, and other fields. But how will such an effort be organized and funded? How will we develop the new technologies that are needed? What new legal, social, and ethical questions will be raised?

Mapping and Sequencing the Human Genome is a blueprint for this proposed project. The authors offer a highly readable explanation of the technical aspects of genetic mapping and sequencing, and they recommend specific interim and long-range research goals, organizational strategies, and funding levels. They also outline some of the legal and social questions that might arise and urge their early consideration by policymakers.

Mapping and Sequencing the Human Genome

This important book for scientists and nonscientists alike calls attention to a most urgent global problem: the rapidly accelerating loss of plant and animal species to increasing human population pressure and the demands of economic development. Based on a major conference sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution, Biodiversity creates a systematic framework for analyzing the problem and searching for possible solutions.

Biodiversity

Life Sciences Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide

‘Life Sciences Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide’ provides an expansive overview of the diverse field of life sciences.

It explores distinct branches such as zoology, botany, and microbiology, and delves into applied sciences and emerging technologies.

This guide serves as a critical resource for novices and seasoned learners, offering insights into the intricate world of genetics, ecological systems, and future trends in life sciences.

Key Takeaways

• Biotechnology is a versatile tool used to solve global problems, including the production of food, medicines, and vaccines.
• North Carolina has experienced significant growth in the life sciences industry, with a large number of companies and skilled workers in the field.
• Biotechnology plays a crucial role in advancing the life sciences industry by contributing to the development of new treatments, precision medicine, and technological advancements.
• The field of life sciences encompasses various branches, such as zoology, botany, genetics, microbiology, and molecular biology, each focusing on different aspects of living organisms.

Understanding the Scope of Life Sciences

The scope of Life Sciences, a multifaceted field of study, encompasses diverse branches such as Biotechnology, Microbiology, and Genetics, all contributing significantly to our understanding and enhancement of life processes.

As we delve into the definition of life sciences, we find that it is an extensive field focusing on the study of living organisms, their structure, functions, and processes. When asked, ‘what is life science?’, one could say it is a discipline that explores all aspects of life, from the microscopic genes in our bodies to complex ecosystems.

Biotechnology leverages life science principles for practical applications in health and agriculture.

Microbiology studies the microscopic organisms that have a large impact on our world, whereas Genetics investigates the hereditary information in living organisms.

The Role of Biotechnology in Life Sciences

Drawing upon the principles of various scientific disciplines, biotechnology paves the way for significant advancements in the field of life sciences. It offers innovative solutions in areas such as healthcare, agriculture, and environmental management.

Biotechnology harnesses cellular and biomolecular processes to develop technologies and products that help improve our lives and the health of our planet. It enables the production of biopharmaceuticals, the genetic modification of crops for increased yield and resistance, and the development of biofuels and bioplastics.

Furthermore, biotechnology has a crucial role in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, contributing to the rise of personalized medicine.

With its vast potential, biotechnology remains at the forefront of scientific breakthroughs, driving the future of life sciences.

What Are the Different Fields of Study in Life Sciences?

From the intricate study of genetics to the vast field of ecology, each branch of life sciences offers a unique lens through which we can explore and understand the complexities of life.

Zoology and botany expose the diverse world of flora and fauna, while anatomy delves into the structures of living organisms.

Genetics unravels the mysteries of inheritance, and ecology reveals how organisms interact with their environment.

Microbiology, mycology, parasitology, virology, and bacteriology illuminate the microscopic universe of life.

Molecular biology, biochemistry, and biotechnology explore life at the molecular level.

Neuroscience, paleontology, marine biology, and biological anthropology are specialized fields that provide further insight.

Agriculture, biomedical science, environmental health, food science, and conservation biology apply this knowledge practically.

Each branch, distinctly significant, collectively paints a comprehensive picture of life.

The Intersection of Life Sciences and Medicine

Understanding the intersection of life sciences and medicine is essential for advancing healthcare. It brings together knowledge from various disciplines such as genetics, molecular biology, and biotechnology and applies it to the development of new treatments and therapies.

This integration allows for a comprehensive approach to patient care. It enables personalized treatment plans based on individual genetic makeup and the creation of targeted therapies for specific diseases.

Moreover, by incorporating life sciences research into clinical practice, we can better understand disease mechanisms. This understanding leads to improved diagnostic tools and preventive measures.

The symbiotic relationship between life sciences and medicine continually propels us forward in our pursuit of improving global health and wellbeing. It showcases the importance of continued investment and innovation in these fields.

Future Trends in Life Sciences

In the ever-evolving field of life sciences, one can anticipate numerous advancements and innovations that will shape the future of healthcare, biotechnology, and environmental studies.

An increasing reliance on artificial intelligence and machine learning is expected, leading to more accurate diagnoses, personalized treatments, and efficient drug development.

Similarly, advancements in genomics and gene editing techniques promise new solutions for genetic disorders.

The emergence of digital health technologies will revolutionize patient care and data management.

Environmental biotechnology will offer innovative solutions for waste management and pollution control.

Lastly, the integration of different life science fields will foster a multidisciplinary approach, enhancing scientific understanding and technological development.

All these trends indicate a promising future for life sciences, marked by significant societal and economic impact.

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In conclusion, ‘Life Sciences Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide’ serves as an indispensable resource for understanding the vast scope of life sciences.

It offers insights into various specialized fields and highlights the crucial role of biotechnology.

The guide underscores the profound interplay between life sciences and medicine, while also forecasting future trends.

This ensures a comprehensive understanding of life sciences, paving the way for further research and advancements in this ever-evolving field.

What Is the Difference between a Life Science and a Natural Science?

Life science and natural science are both major categories of scientific disciplines, yet they focus on different areas of study. Life science is dedicated to the study of living organisms and their life processes, encompassing fields such as biology, botany, zoology, and genetics. It aims to understand the structure, function, growth, evolution, and distribution of living entities. What is a natural science ? on the other hand, is a broader category that includes the life sciences but also encompasses the physical sciences, which study non-living systems. Physical sciences include disciplines such as physics, chemistry, astronomy, and earth sciences. Thus, while life science focuses specifically on living organisms and their interactions, natural science covers both living and non-living matter, exploring the laws and properties of the natural world.

What Is a Scientific Model and How Does it Relate to Life Sciences?

A scientific model is a simplified representation used to explain, understand, or predict phenomena in the natural world. These models can be physical, mathematical, or conceptual, designed to describe complex realities in a more comprehensible manner. In the life sciences, scientific models play a crucial role by allowing researchers to conceptualise biological processes, test hypotheses, and visualize the intricate mechanisms of living organisms.

What Is Life Sciences Content?

Life sciences content refers to the information, data, and knowledge that is related to the study of living organisms and their life processes. This encompasses a wide range of topics within the field of biology and its many sub-disciplines, such as botany, zoology, genetics, microbiology, biochemistry, and ecology. In the realm of scientific content , life sciences content can be found in various formats, including academic journals, textbooks, online courses, articles, and multimedia resources.

What Is Scientific Evidence and How Does It Relate to Life Sciences?

Scientific evidence refers to the information and data collected through systematic observation, experimentation, and analysis that support or refute a scientific theory, hypothesis, or claim. In the context of life sciences, scientific evidence is crucial for understanding the complex processes that govern living organisms and their environments. This evidence is derived from rigorous methods, including laboratory experiments, field studies, clinical trials, and observational research, which aim to ensure reliability and validity.

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What is life?

Jaime gómez-márquez.

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology - CIBUS, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Galicia Spain

Many traditional biological concepts continue to be debated by biologists, scientists and philosophers of science. The specific objective of this brief reflection is to offer an alternative vision to the definition of life taking as a starting point the traits common to all living beings.

Results and Conclusions

Thus, I define life as a process that takes place in highly organized organic structures and is characterized by being preprogrammed, interactive, adaptative and evolutionary. If life is the process, living beings are the system in which this process takes place. I also wonder whether viruses can be considered living things or not. Taking as a starting point my definition of life and, of course, on what others have thought about it, I am in favor of considering viruses as living beings. I base this conclusion on the fact that viruses satisfy all the vital characteristics common to all living things and on the role they have played in the evolution of species. Finally, I argue that if there were life elsewhere in the universe, it would be very similar to what we know on this planet because the laws of physics and the composition of matter are universal and because of the principle of the inexorability of life.

Introduction

Life is a wonderful natural process that occurs in highly organized dynamic structures that we call living beings. Today, thanks to the enormous advance of Biology, we know and understand much better the vital phenomenon, the molecular biology of the cells, the enormous biodiversity on our planet, the evolutionary process, and the complexity of ecosystems. However, despite these enormous advances, biology still lacks a solid theoretical framework necessary to understand the vital phenomenon and to answer questions such as what is life? or are viruses living entities? To answer these and other fundamental questions related to life, in addition to the universal laws of physics, biology needs its own principles to help us find answers to major theoretical challenges such as the origin of life, the construction and maintenance of genomes, or the concept of life itself. Regarding the principles governing life, there have been several contributions from different perspectives (e.g. [ 1 – 5 ]) and I myself have proposed a series of principles (named as the commandments of life) to explain and understand the vital phenomenon from an evolutionary perspective, far from any vitalist, pseudo-scientific or supernatural considerations [ 6 ].

In the words of B. Clark, a definition of life is needed more than ever before to provide defendable objective criteria for searches for life on other planets, to recognize critical distinctions between machine life and robots, to provide insight into laboratory approaches to creating test-tube life, to understand the profound changes that occurred during the origin of life, and to clarify the central process of the discipline of biology [ 7 ]. It is worth noting what E. Koonin wrote about the complexity of defining life: “In my view, although life definitions are metaphysical rather than strictly scientific propositions, they are far from being pointless and have potential to yield genuine biological insights” [ 8 ]. However, despite its importance there is no widely accepted definition of what life is and some of the most commonly employed definitions (see below) face problems, often in the form of robust counter-examples [ 5 , 9 ]. Even some scientists and philosophers of science suggest that it is not possible to define life [ 5 , 8 ].

We can define life in very different ways depending on the context and the focus we want to give to the definition. For example, we can define life as the period from birth to death or as the condition that occurs only in living organisms. We can also say that life is a wonderful and ever-changing process that occurs in highly organized receptacles that we identify as living entities. Likewise, the popular encyclopedia Wikipedia define life as “a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have biological processes ….. from those that do not …” [ 10 ]. However, with these expressions we are not defining precisely what life is and therefore we need to create a definition that concisely but informatively reflects our scientific knowledge of the vital phenomenon. We have to distinguish between life and living matter, which is the place where life lives, and between living beings and non-living matter. In reality, when we ask ourselves “what is life?” we are asking “what are the characteristics that distinguish a living organism from a non-living entity?

There are numerous definitions of life formulated from different characteristics of living beings (replication, metabolism, evolution, energy, autopoiesis, etc.) and from different approaches (thermodynamic, chemical, philosophical, evolutionary, etc.). Often, definitions of life are biased by the research focus of the person making the definition; as a result, people studying different aspects of biology, physics, chemistry, or philosophy will draw the line between life and non-life at different positions [ 11 ]. These strategies create a panoply of alternative definitions that makes it very difficult to reach a consensus on the best definition of life because they all have pros and cons. [ 12 , 13 ]. Let me briefly discuss some of the most representative definitions of life. There is a short definition “Life is self-reproduction with variations” [ 14 ] that is interesting for its brevity and because it includes two fundamental characteristics of living organisms: reproduction and evolution. However, this minimalist definition is clearly insufficient [ 8 ] and it does not include some of the most important traits we see in living things. Along these lines, there is also the definition coined by NASA: “Life is a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution” [ 15 , 16 ]. This is a more complete and, I believe, better definition than the previous one, as it incorporates, in addition to reproduction and evolution, metabolism. However, both definitions are unsatisfactory because neither cell nor multicellular organisms are self-sufficient as there is always a dependence on other organisms and external factors to live and reproduce. Furthermore, these definitions say nothing about the chemical nature of living matter, the interactions with the environment or the low entropy of living things. Apart from that, reproduction being essential for the perpetuation of species and evolution, not all living beings are able to reproduce (e.g. the mule, most bees, etc.) and do not thereby lose their living status. A more recent definition of life states: “Life is a self-sufficient chemical system far from equilibrium, capable of processing, transforming and accumulating information acquired from the environment” [ 17 ]. Although this definition is more comprehensive than the previous ones and includes a reference to thermodynamics, in my opinion it has four drawbacks: (i) the term “self-sufficient” is not adequate because the quality of life does not provide self-sufficiency; (ii) the thermodynamic component does not highlight how fundamental low entropy or high order is for any living being; (iii) information can be acquired from “within” and not only from the environment; (iv) life is not a system is a process and living beings are the system where that process occurs (I discuss this point below). From a very different perspective it was defined life as “matter with the configuration of an operator, and that possesses a complexity equal to, or even higher than the cellular operator” [ 18 ]. This proposal introduces a new term, the operator, which is somewhat confusing, excludes viruses and makes a strange classification of living systems. On the other hand, some scientists have also attempted to define life from a handful of key features. Thus, seven “pillars” (the essential principles by which a living system functions) have been proposed on which life as we know it can be defined [ 19 ], but no definition was provided. Life has also been considered as any system that from its own inherent set of biological instructions and the algorithmic processing of that "prescriptive information" can perform the nine biofunctions [ 20 ] which are basically the same as the "pillars" mentioned above. However, no definition of life was proposed, and again it was considered as a system rather than a process. Both definitions exclude viruses as living beings, mainly because the existence of a membrane, a metabolic network and self-replication are set as conditions for life. In short, there are many more definitions of life but as R. Popa says “We may never agree on a definition of life, which will remain forever subject to a personal perspective” [ 21 ].

My definition of life

Traits are measurable attributes or characteristics of organisms and trait-based approaches have been widely used in systematics and evolutionary studies [ 22 ]. Since any definition of life must connect with what we observe in nature, my strategy for finding a definition of life was to establish what are the key attributes or traits common to all living things. What do bacteria, yeasts, lichens, trees, beetles, birds, whales, etc. have in common that clearly differentiates them from non-living systems? In my opinion, living organisms share seven traits: organic nature, high degree of organization, pre-programming, interaction (or collaboration), adaptation, reproduction and evolution, the last two being facultative as they are not present in all living beings.

Organic nature and highly organized structures. Living matter is organic because it is based on carbon chemistry and molecular interactions take place following the laws of chemistry. As R. Hazen wrote “Carbon chemistry pervades our lives. Almost every object we see, every material good we buy, every bite of food we consume, is based on element six. Every activity is influenced by carbon—work and sports, sleeping and waking, birthing and dying.” [ 23 ]. Living organisms are highly organized structures that maintain low entropy (the vital order) by generating greater disorder in the environment, thus fulfilling the postulates of thermodynamics [ 24 , 25 ]; when this vital order is lost, life disappears and the only way to restore life is to generate a new vital organized structure through reproduction [ 6 ]. Living organisms resist entropy thanks to biochemical processes that transform the energy they obtain from nutrients, sun or redox reactions. It could be said that vital order and energy are two sides of the same coin.

Pre-programming. Every living entity has a software (a pre-programme) in its genetic material that contains the instruction manual necessary for both its construction (morphology) and its functioning (physiology). This programme has been modified in the course of evolution, as a consequence of contingency and causality, so it is not a static or immutable program but a dynamic one. Furthermore, there is also another preestablished program that conditions the vital phenomenon and that I have called the principle of inexorability [ 6 ]. Let me give few examples of the principle of inexorability at different levels of complexity. The shape of ribosome is determined (pre-programmed) by the chemical bonds that are established between ribosomal proteins and rRNA. A similar example is the λ phage morphogenesis that depends only on interactions protein–protein and protein-DNA. Evolutionary convergence or the need for wings to fly are other examples of this inexorability guided by the laws of nature.

Interaction and adaptation. If we look at nature in its purest state or at the complex human society, we can see countless interactions between living beings and with their environment necessary for survival and reproduction. We can see interactions at the molecular level (e.g., allosteric interactions, metabolic pathways, cellular signaling, quorum sensing), in the relationships between organisms of the same or different species (e.g., sexual reproduction, symbiosis, infection, parasitism, predator–prey, or sound language), or between living forms and the environment (e.g., photosynthesis or physiological/anatomical interactions for swimming or flying). Interaction is collaboration, it is cooperation at all levels [ 6 ], the ecosystem being the best example of multiple collaborative interactions between very different organisms. In terms of adaptation, living organisms show a great capacity to adapt both to their surroundings and to environmental circumstances; furthermore, adaptations involving new biological characteristics can be seen as an opportunity to find a different way to evolve. In this sense, the evolutionary process reflects this continuous adaptation and anatomy, physiology and genome bear witness to this. Life is adaptative because species adapt to environmental changes modifying their physiology or metabolism, for instance reducing heartbeat during hibernation (e.g. the grizzly bear Ursus arctos horribilis ) or synthesizing fat from excess sugar to increase the energy reserves of the body (e.g. Homo sapiens ). In addition to these temporal adaptations in response to environmental changes [ 26 ], there are also changes in genotype or phenotype since the adaptation process is the result of natural selection acting upon heritable variations [ 27 ]; a well-known example of this is the peppered moth Biston betularia whose allele frequencies of the locus that controls the distribution of melanin in the wings changed with the industrial revolution in England [ 28 ]. Epigenetic variations also contribute to rapid adaptative responses [ 29 , 30 ].

Reproduction and Evolution. Another property of living beings is their ability to perpetuate themselves and thus make it possible for the species not to disappear and to evolve. Reproduction can be observed at the molecular (DNA replication), cellular (mitosis, meiosis, binary division), and organismal (sexual and asexual) levels. From a different perspective, reproduction is also the way to overcome the second law of thermodynamics and the tyranny of time because when we reproduce, we are creating a new order and resetting the vital clock to zero [ 6 ]. What about individuals such as the mule or the male and female of a species, or the hermaphrodite that cannot self-fertilize, who cannot reproduce because they are sterile or because they need another member of their species to reproduce? Are not these organisms living beings? Of course, they are! In this context, reproduction must be considered as a facultative trait because not all living organisms are fertile or can produce offspring on their own but maintain all other traits necessary for the life process. If an individual is sterile, the species will continue to exist because the evolutionary process must be analyzed at the population level, not at the level of individual organisms; obviously, if the entire population were sterile, then the species would disappear and there would be no life. All species have the capacity to evolve, and this property is unique to life. Evolution allows living beings to adapt to new circumstances and the best genomes are selected and transmitted to the next generations. The concept of evolution (reproduction with variations and permanence in time) allows us to interpret the reality of the life we observe now and to guess what it has been like in the past. We cannot predict the future because evolution is not a finalistic process, it is, to use the words of J. Monod, the fruit of chance and necessity.

There is nothing on this planet, apart from a living being, that complies with all these characteristic features of living beings. It should therefore be possible to define life by logically combining them. Consequently, I define life as a process that takes place in highly organized organic structures and is characterized by being preprogrammed, interactive, adaptative and evolutionary. If life is the process, a living organism is the system in which that process takes place and which is characterized as organic, highly organized, pre-programmed, interactive, adaptative, and evolutionary. Why do I say that life is a process and not a system? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a process is a natural phenomenon characterized by gradual changes that lead towards a certain result. A second meaning defines it as a continuous natural or biological activity or function; and a third one as a series of actions or operations conducing to an end. These three meanings of what a process is fit very well with what we observe happening in living beings, which is none other than the vital process or life. The dictionary itself defines a system as a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole, and as an assemblage of substances that is in or tends to equilibrium or a group of body organs that together perform one or more vital functions. Once again, these definitions fit very well with what a living being represents.

What is the difference between life, living being and a robot? [ 31 ] Life is the vital process and the living being is the system, the “container” in a metaphorical way, where the vital process takes place. Following this reasoning, a robot would be an artificially organized, pre-programmed and interactive system, but unlike a living being it is not alive because it is neither organic, nor does it reproduce, adapt, or evolve. A robot or a population of robots cannot “reproduce and evolve” on its own, without the intervention of its "creator" (the human being), it will always need to be built or programmed by an engineer to do so. I do not dispute that the robot can adapt, especially thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, although I am not sure that it can do so in the biological sense of the term. Biological adaptation is a process by which a species eventually adapts to its environment as a result of the action of natural selection on phenotypic characteristics [ 32 ]. A robot may be able to adapt to its environment, but what it cannot do is adapt itself through a selective process (without intervention from its creator) and change into a new type of robot (evolve). On the other hand, regarding the synthetic lifeforms named as xenobots [ 33 ], I think they cannot be considered as pure robots, but as an interface between living beings and artificial robots, as they are made from cells. In the future we will probably build robots so perfect that we can consider them as almost living beings and as the result of the intervention of a creator (their engineer), something that we cannot say about living beings unless we are creationists.

Are viruses alive?

A. Turing, one of the pioneers in the development of computer sciences, wrote: “Can machines think? This should begin with definitions of the meaning of the terms “machine” and “think” [ 34 ]. To paraphrase Turing, we could ask ourselves: can viruses be considered living entities? And the answer to this question, so important for biology and still controversial [ 35 ], is to define what a virus is and what life is. At least from a theoretical point of view, biology should seek a clear and definitive answer to this question instead of adopting a skeptical attitude and assuming what K. Smith wrote in his classic book on viruses, “As to the question asked most frequently of all, are viruses living organisms? that must be left to the questioner himself to answer” [ 36 ].

Viruses are entities that straddle the boundary between living and non-living and therefore their biological status is controversial. A virus can be defined as an acellular infectious agent whose structure consists of a macromolecular complex of proteins and nucleic acids. Viruses are not cells, they do not metabolize substances, nor can they reproduce by themselves, grow, or breathe. Yet, regardless of whether we consider viruses to be living beings or not, they are an inescapable part of life and there is an undeniable biological connection between the virus and the organism it infects. Given the close interconnection between viruses and their hosts, it seems plausible that viruses play essential roles in their hosts [ 37 ]. For example, endogenous retroviral elements have shaped vertebrate genome evolution, not only by acting as genetic parasites, but also by introducing useful genetic novelty [ 38 ]. More recently, it was found in the human genome a gene regulatory network based on endogenous retrovirus that is important for brain development [ 39 ] and a new tamed retroviral envelope that is produced by the fetus and then shed in the blood of the mother during pregnancy [ 40 ].

Viruses are capsid-encoding particles that infect all kind of cells and share hallmark genes with capsidless selfish genetic elements, such as plasmids and transposons [ 41 ]. Traditionally, they have been regarded as lifeless agents because they have no metabolism of their own and need a cell to replicate and generate new viruses [ 42 ]. However, while this is true, I believe that this is not a definitive criterion for excluding them from the tree of life (more on this below). There are scientists in the opposite side that consider viruses as living beings that can evolve [ 43 ] and classify them as capsid-encoding organisms as opposed to the ribosome-encoding organisms that include all cellular life forms [ 37 , 44 ]. Viruses have played a key role in the evolution of species [ 35 ] because they are the most abundant source of genetic material on Earth, are ubiquitous in all environments, and have actively participated in the exchange of genes or DNA fragments with their hosts [ 41 , 45 , 46 ].

We cannot say whether a virus is a living thing or not without defining what is life and what is a living thing. Obviously, if we take the cell as the minimum vital unit, we cannot consider viruses as living entities, and any discussion of this is superfluous. As far as I am concerned, considering viruses as non-living creatures because they need a cell to reproduce is not a very strong argument for two reasons. First, viruses are obligate intracellular parasites, and, like all parasites, they use the host for their own benefit, and this is their survival strategy. Viruses need nothing else to pursue the same goal as all species on this planet, which is to generate more viruses better adapted to infect new organisms. They apply the “law of least effort” to achieve this goal and may even decide to remain inside the host cell in a lysogenic manner, as in the case of bacteriophage lambda [ 47 ], or by establishing latency as herpesviruses do [ 48 ]. Second, as I said before no cell or organism is self-sufficient, as it needs at least a supply of food/energy to survive and reproduce. We know that life is absolutely interdependent. For example, we depend directly on our intestinal bacterial flora for our survival, and indirectly on nitrogen-fixing bacteria or photosynthesis. We could take to absurdity the argument that because viruses need a cell to reproduce, they are not alive and say that a man or a woman is not a living being because they cannot reproduce by themselves. The argument that a virus is not a living thing because it is an inert entity outside the cell is also not valid because such a virus could still have the ability to infect cells. Similarly, a spore or a seed cannot be considered lifeless because it is inert, as it is only waiting for the right environmental conditions to germinate, and that wait can last for thousands of years.

To answer the question of whether viruses are alive or not, I base my argument in support of considering viruses as living entities obviously on my own definition of life (this paper), as well as on what we know about the biology of viruses. First, viruses, like all cellular entities in nature, are composed of organic molecules; a virus consists of a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA), which is its genetic material as in all living things, and a protein capsid encoded by the viral genome that protects the viral genetic material and participates in the propagation of the virus in the host; viral capsids show fascinating dynamics during the viral life cycle [ 49 ]. Secondly, viruses are highly organized structures. There is an astonishing diversity of organization and geometric design of viruses, requiring only a few different structural subunits of the capsid to construct an infectious particle. Many viruses have developed very successful self-assembly systems; so much so that the viral capsid can self-assemble even outside the host cell [ 50 ]. The third feature common to all living things is that they are pre-programmed, and viruses also fulfill this characteristic because in their genetic material are written the instructions to make new viruses capable of infecting new cells or organisms. Viruses in their genome have the necessary (though not sufficient because they need elements provided by the host cell) instructions to make new viruses, and in this they are the same as any other living thing. In addition, the process of self-assembly to generate new viruses occurs spontaneously because the instructions to do it autonomously are both in the capsid-forming molecules themselves and in the nucleic acid, either DNA or RNA [ 49 ].

Two other characteristics of living organisms are the ability to interact with other living organisms (interaction) and to adapt genetically to new circumstances (adaptation). Viruses interact with their host in multiple ways: during infection, when their genes are expressed and their genome replicated, when virions are formed, when they integrate into the genome of the host cell, or when they engage in horizontal gene transfer processes. Viruses not only interact with their host, but also adapt by generating new variants that increase their ability to infect other cells, or by taking control of cell metabolism for their own benefit, or even to escape the immune response [ 51 ]. In terms of reproduction and evolution, which are two closely related processes, viruses reproduce in the host cell and evolve through changes in their genome. Viral evolution, like that of all living things, refers to the heritable genetic changes that a virus accumulates during its life cycle, which may arise from adaptations in response to environmental changes or host immune response. Because of their short generation times and large population sizes, viruses can evolve rapidly [ 52 ].

Microbiologist and Nobel laureate J. Lederberg said that “The very essence of the virus is its fundamental entanglement with the genetic and metabolic machinery of the host”. As far as I am concerned, this statement is essentially true and its profound meaning is, at least for me, further proof that viruses are living things. Viruses form part of many integrated biological systems, and they played an important role in the evolution of species [ 53 ]. They can exchange genetic material and participate in horizontal gene transfer [ 43 ] even between individuals from different species [ 54 ]. Due to their high frequency of mutation [ 55 ], viruses are so abundant in nature and present such a high degree of diversity that they constitute by themselves the virosphere [ 46 ]. This great viral biodiversity is proof that these living entities perform fundamental evolutionary and ecological functions [ 56 , 57 ]. In conclusion, I believe that viruses should be considered as living entities that can participate in events as diverse as causing pandemics, destroying bacteria, causing cancer, or participating in horizontal gene transfer.

Following the metaphor of the “container” as the vessel or system (the living being) in which the life process takes place, the fact that viruses are obligated intracellular parasites and do not have a cellular structure and metabolism of their own does not seem to fit this metaphor. It is obvious that the virus cannot be the “container” where the life process takes place, since the virus, when outside the cell, is in a “dormant” state waiting to find a suitable host to infect and complete its life cycle; we could say that it is inert but not yet dead. Therefore, in the special case of viruses, the “container” is the cell. Once the virus finds its specific “container”, it can then reproduce, or integrate into the genome of the host cell, or remain as an episome, or intervene in the evolutionary process through exchange of genetic material. From genomic and metagenomic data, we know that co-evolution between viral and host genomes involves frequent horizontal gene transfer and the occasional co-option of novel functions over evolutionary time. We can say that viruses and their cellular hosts are ecologically and evolutionary intertwined [ 58 ].

I would like to refer to an interesting reflection on the defining characteristics of life and how viruses fit into this conceptual framework [ 59 ]. Thus, Dupré and O'Malley consider collaboration as a common criterion of life and I can only agree with this assessment; in this sense, in a previous paper on the principles that govern life [ 6 ], I use the expression “cooperative thrust” to refer to the importance of collaboration in the origin and evolution of living beings. Without considering collaboration or cooperation as a key interaction, we could not explain endosymbiosis, eukaryogenesis, metabolism, multicellularity, etc. In the present paper, collaboration is implicit in what I call interaction as a common and fundamental feature of all living things. Interestingly, these authors point out that “leaving viruses out of evolutionary, ecological, physiological or conceptual studies of living entities, would allow only an incomplete understanding of life at any level” [ 59 ]. Considering this emphasis on collaboration as a sine qua non condition for life, how does the world of viruses fit in? Dupré and O'Malley propose, and I agree, that viruses can be understood as alive when they actively collaborate (I mean when they are infecting the target cell) and when they do not collaborate (I would say they are inactive), they have at most a potential for life.

Finally, I would like to add that I am aware that there are many scientists who consider that viruses are not living beings basically because they do not have a cellular structure with all that this means. Therefore, this biological dilemma will probably be with us for a long time to come. I think it will only be resolved when we reach a consensus on what life is because only then will we be able to say categorically whether something is alive or not. This is what I have modestly tried to do in this paper.

What would life be like elsewhere in the universe?

The massive number of exoplanets strongly suggests that there is a high probability that life evolved elsewhere in the universe. Astrobiologists are committed to the search for life in the cosmos and for that purpose it is very convenient to have a criterion about what life is [ 16 ]. How can we be sure that there is life on a distant planet? To do so, we need to define some biosignatures that can establish the possible existence of living things elsewhere in the universe [ 60 ], otherwise what are we looking for? In addition to this, it would also help a lot in this search for life on other planets, finding out how life began on Earth.

Some scientists and philosophers of science think that this preconception of what life is may be a problem rather than a solution in the search for life in other planets. C. Cleland in her book about the nature of life states, “Life is not the sort of thing that can be successfully defined. In truth, a definition of life is more likely to hinder than facilitate the discovery of novel forms of life” [ 5 ]. I do not entirely agree with this double statement because although we must be open-minded in the search for life outside our galactic home, at the same time I think it is a good idea to have a hypothesis based on the only certainty we have about vital phenomena, which is life on Earth, that will help in the design of the search for extraterrestrial life.

Is there life elsewhere in the universe? We don't know yet and it is probably only a matter of time before we find life on other planets or aliens find us. In my opinion if there is life elsewhere in the universe, it will most likely be similar to what existed, exists or will exist on our planet. Let us see why. First of all, the laws of physics and chemistry are universal and these laws, directly or indirectly, govern everything that happens with the matter of the universe. According to the cosmological principle, the same physical laws and models that applies here on Earth also works in all parts of the universe [ 61 ]; it is also assumed that physical constants (gravitational constant, speed of light, etc.) remain the same everywhere in the universe. Second, the elements that make up the matter of the stars are the same everywhere in the universe although in different proportions; the “periodic table” is the same for the whole universe. Whether life exists elsewhere in the universe based on a chemistry other than carbon we do not know and can only speculate, but what we do know for sure is that life on Earth is based on carbon chemistry, perhaps because it cannot be otherwise. Third, there is the aforementioned principle of inexorability [ 6 ]. In this context, what does this principle mean? It means that if the environmental conditions are suitable, glucose will be converted into pyruvate in an aqueous medium, chemiosmotic processes will be an important mechanism for generating chemical energy, flying organisms will have wings, or genetic information will be encoded in a language analogous or identical to what we know on Earth. According to this, the differences between the Earth living forms and the “space creatures” could be attributed to a different evolutionary stage or to specific environmental conditions. This hypothetical premise could be very important when developing projects that seek life elsewhere in the universe.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my colleagues M. L. González Caamaño and R. Anadón for their useful discussions. This work is dedicated to my parents.

Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. The author did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

Declarations

The author has no conflict of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

The original online version of this article was revised due to funding information update.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Data Analysis for Life Sciences

Master key concepts using the r programming language.

This HarvardX professional certificate program gives learners the necessary skills and knowledge to analyze data in the life sciences.

What You'll Learn

Technological advances have transformed fields that rely on data by providing a wealth of information ready to be analyzed. From working with single genes to comparing entire genomes, biomedical research groups around the world are producing more data than they can handle and the ability to interpret this information is a key skill for any practitioner. The skills necessary to work with these massive datasets are in high demand, and this series will help you learn those skills.

Using the open-source R programming language, you’ll gain a nuanced understanding of the tools required to work with complex life sciences and genomics data. You’ll learn the mathematical concepts — and the data analytics techniques — that you need to drive data-driven research. From a strong foundation in statistics to specialized R programming skills, this series will lead you through the data analytics landscape step-by-step.

Taught by Rafael Irizarry from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, these courses will enable new discoveries and will help you improve individual and population health. If you’re working in the life sciences and want to learn how to analyze data, enroll now to take your research to the next level.

The course will be delivered via edX and connect learners around the world. 

Courses in this Program

2–4 hours per week, for 4 weeks An introduction to basic statistical concepts and R programming skills necessary for analyzing data in the life sciences.

2–4 hours per week, for 4 weeks Learn to use R programming to apply linear models to analyze data in life sciences.

2–4 hours per week, for 4 weeks A focus on the techniques commonly used to perform statistical inference on high throughput data.

2–4 hours per week, for 4 weeks A focus on several techniques that are widely used in the analysis of high-dimensional data.

Your Instructor

Rafael Irizarry

Professor of Biostatistics at Harvard University Read full bio.

Michael Love

Assistant Professor, Departments of Biostatistics and Genetics at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health Read full bio.

Job Outlook

• R is listed as a required skill in 64% of data science job postings and was Glassdoor’s Best Job in America in 2016 and 2017. (source: Glassdoor)
• Companies are leveraging the power of data analysis to drive innovation. Google data analysts use R to track trends in ad pricing and illuminate patterns in search data. Pfizer created customized packages for R so scientists can manipulate their own data.
• 32% of full-time data scientists started learning machine learning or data science through a MOOC, while 27% were self-taught. (source: Kaggle, 2017)
• Data Scientists are few in number and high in demand. (source: TechRepublic)

Ways to take this program

When you enroll in this program, you will register for a Verified Certificate for all 4 courses in the Professional Certificate Series. 

Alternatively, learners can Audit the individual course for free and have access to select course material, activities, tests, and forums. Please note that Auditing the courses does not offer course or program certificates for learners who earn a passing grade.

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Average number of completed submissions received by lsrf every october since the first call for proposals in 1982., our 9 officers, 20 advisory board members and 35 review committee members all volunteer their services. these groups include 6 nobel laureates and 36 nas members., number of postdocs funded since our first class of awardees was announced in 1983. this is only possible with generous financial support from sponsors., average number of postdocs funded annually. this number varies each year and is tied to our annual fundraising efforts. lsrf has no endowment or pool of funds., donald d. brown (1931-2023), don brown memorial fund.

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Life science tools and reagents market to reach usd 453.2 billion by 2032 | datahorizzon research.

The life science tools and reagents market size was valued at USD 209.7 Billion in 2023 and is expected to reach a market size of USD 453.2 Billion by 2032 at a CAGR of 8.9%.

Fort Collins, Colorado, April 20, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

The expansion of the market for life science instruments and reagents owes much to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies' escalating investments in research and development (R&D) initiatives. These sectors are pivotal contributors to the projected USD 2.4 trillion global R&D spending in 2021, as reported by R&D World's 2021 Global R&D Funding Forecast. The heightened focus on drug discovery, biomarker identification, and preclinical investigations has increased demand for advanced   life science instruments and reagents.

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms are increasingly allocating resources toward R&D efforts to drive innovation and bring novel therapies to market. Consequently, there is a growing need for sophisticated instruments and high-quality reagents to support these endeavors. The emphasis on drug discovery, biomarker identification, and preclinical studies underscores the importance of precise and reliable tools and reagents in advancing research and development pipelines.

Moreover, governments worldwide actively support and fund life sciences research initiatives, further propelling market growth. Government funding provides critical financial support for research projects, infrastructure development, and collaborative efforts between academia, industry, and government agencies. This support fosters innovation and stimulates demand for life science instruments and reagents across diverse research sectors.

Overall, the convergence of increased investments by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in R&D activities, alongside government support for life sciences research, catalyzes the market growth for life science instruments and reagents. This dynamic landscape underscores the crucial role of advanced tools and reagents in driving progress and innovation within the life sciences industry.

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Segmentation Overview:

The life science tools and reagents market has been segmented into product type, application, and region.

The molecular sector will set the stage in the forecast period.

Several factors underpin the projection that the molecular sector will emerge as the largest sub-segment in 2023 within the market segmentation for life science tools and reagents by product type. This prominence is primarily attributed to the increasing demand for individualized medicine, genomic research, and molecular diagnostics.

The molecular sector is pivotal in advancing personalized medicine, which tailors medical treatment to individual patients based on their genetic makeup, lifestyle, and environment. Additionally, ongoing genomic research endeavors to understand the genetic basis of diseases and identify potential therapeutic targets drive the demand for molecular tools and reagents. Furthermore, the expanding field of molecular diagnostics, which encompasses techniques for detecting genetic variations and biomarkers associated with diseases, contributes to the growth of this sub-segment. As healthcare systems worldwide increasingly prioritize precision medicine approaches and early disease detection, the demand for molecular tools and reagents is expected to continue rising.

Hospitals and diagnostic labs registered a positive CAGR in 2023.

The hospitals & diagnostic labs sub-segment is likely the largest within the market segmentation for life science tools and reagents by application type. This prominence can be attributed to several factors, including the growing demand for diagnostic testing and the escalating prevalence of chronic illnesses necessitating continuous monitoring and testing.

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Life Science Tools and Reagents Market Report Highlights:

The life science tools and reagents growth is anticipated at a CAGR of 8.9% by 2032.

Advances in genomics and proteomics are expected to propel the industry growth in the forecast period.

North America registered a significant market share in the past and is projected to continue dominating in the coming years attributed to favorable government policies.

Some prominent players in the life science tools and reagents market report include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Agilent Technologies, Danaher Corporation, Illumina, Merck KGaA, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Becton Dickinson and Company, Qiagen, Hoffmann-La Roche, Promega Corporation, and Waters Corporation.

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• NATURE INDEX
• 29 April 2020

Rising stars in life sciences 2020

• Bec Crew 0 ,
• Hepeng Jia &
• Mark Zastrow 2

Senior editor, Nature Index

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Mark Zastrow is a writer based in Seoul, South Korea.

Rose-like Chinese cabbage, developed by Hou Xilin at the College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University. Credit: Imaginechina Limited/Alamy

Zhejiang University (ZJU) in Hangzhou, China, is the fastest-rising institution in life-sciences research in the Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables .

Its change in adjusted Share from 2015 to 2019 was 42.94, representing a 158.1% increase over 4 years. (When comparing data over time, Share values are adjusted to 2019 levels to account for the small annual variation in the total number of articles in the Nature Index journals. The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance. See Editor’s note below.)

Chinese institutions represent eight of the ten fastest-rising institutions in the discipline, and the University of Oxford, UK, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in Switzerland are 7th and 8th, respectively (see Graphic). See the 2020 Annual Tables Top 100 institutions for life sciences for 2019 .

Source: Nature Index

Here is a selection of institutions from the top 30 of the Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables — rising stars in life-sciences research.

Zhejiang University, China

Change in adjusted Share (2015–19): 42.94; % change: 158.1%; Place: 1st

Located in Hangzhou, the capital of China’s Zhejiang province in the country’s east, Zhejiang University is part of the Chinese government’s Double First Class Plan, which aims to develop several world-class universities by 2050. Since 2015, its output in the life sciences has more than doubled, making it one of the fastest rising institutions in the discipline.

Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables

The 120-year-old university has established 17 interdisciplinary alliances to find solutions to global challenges, from improving crops, to developing minimally invasive medical devices. For example, its Antibody-Based Novel Drug Research and Industrialization Alliance has partnered with Hisun Pharmaceutical, Zhejiang Medicine and Newsummit Biopharma to develop biopharmaceutical drugs.

Among the research published by Zhejiang scientists in 2019 was a method for regenerating tooth enamel ( Science Advances ), the discovery of a tumour-suppressing compound in broccoli ( Science ), and the development of ‘bio glue’ that can rapidly repair heart wounds ( Nature Communications ).

Fudan University, China

Change in adjusted Share (2015–19): 15.41; % change: 36.0%; Place: 12th

The Shanghai-based Fudan University was the first privately launched higher-education institution in China, established in 1905. In the 1940s, it became a public university, and a decade later, became a comprehensive university focused on the humanities, social sciences and basic research in the natural sciences.

In several college rankings, including the Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds tables, Fudan is considered among the top 5 universities in China, alongside Peking University in Beijing, Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei. Its merger with the Shanghai Medical University in 2000 strengthened Fudan’s national standing in life-sciences research.

In 2019, Fudan had enrolled 13,623 undergraduate and 22,610 graduate students. Its 3,110 faculty includes 47 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering and 119 recipients of the Distinguished Young Scientist award from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Fudan hosts several State Key Labs — facilities that receive funding and administrative support from the Chinese government — including the State Key Lab of Genetic Engineering, a leading player in China’s life-sciences research.

Nanjing Agricultural University, China

Change in adjusted Share (2015–19): 14.79; % change: 280.1%; Place: 15th

Based in Nanjing, the capital city of the wealthy eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, Nanjing Agricultural University (NJAU) was established in 1952 as a conglomeration of agriculture departments from Nanjing University, the University of Nanking and Zhejiang University. In 1963, it was classified by the Chinese government as one of the two national key agricultural universities (the other is Shenyang Agricultural University in the city of Shenyang in the country’s northeast).

In 2019, NJAU had 17,000 undergraduate and 11,000 graduate students, and 2,700 faculty members, including two members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Hosting the State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement and more than 60 national research centres in agriculture and related disciplines, NJAU has received 2.6 billion yuan (US$366 million) in research grants.

NJAU hosts four national key disciplines, including crop science, agricultural resources and environment, and plant protection, which have been recognized by China’s Ministry of Education. Both of its agricultural science and botany/zoology disciplines were ranked among the world’s top 0.1%, according to Essential Science Indicators rankings, developed by Clarivate.

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Change in adjusted Share (2015–19): 14.6; % change: 23.6%; Place: 18th

Founded in 1479 as a studium generale (medieval university), the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) is the second-oldest institution for higher education in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University, which was established in 1477 in Sweden. With almost 38,000 students and almost 5,000 research faculty, UCPH is the largest university in Denmark.

Known for its biomedical research , the university’s long-standing collaboration with the Beijing Genomics Institute (or BGI Group), headquartered in Shenzhen, China — which is among China's largest commercial providers of genomic sequencing and analysis — is one of the most productive corporate–academic partnerships in the Nature Index. Notable examples of their work include meta-genomic sequencing of human gut bacteria and piecing together ancient DNA.

The UCPH Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, which encompasses 5 schools, 13 departments and 3 hospitals, is home to the LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center, launched in 2018, which aims to improve the prevention and treatment of skin diseases such as psoriasis and melanoma.

University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Change in adjusted Share (2015–19): 11.95; % change: 62.0%; Place: 26th

With 30,000 students, 6,000 staff members, and 3,000 PhD candidates, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is the largest university in the Netherlands, and dates back to 1632. Its Faculty of Science encompasses eight research institutes, focusing on astronomy, computing science, biology, logic, physics, mathematics, life sciences and chemistry.

The Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, established in 2000, is one of the largest institutes in the UvA Faculty of Science, and brings together 240 researchers in areas such as cell and systems biology, neuroscience and ‘green life sciences’, which aims to understand how plants deal with certain stresses, insects, microbes and other organisms, and how they diversified during evolution.

In a February 2020 Science Advances paper , UvA researchers examined the effects of atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide on the common cyanobacterium Microcystis , which is responsible for many toxic blooms on lakes. They found that the bacteria readily adapted to take up more CO 2 , which the team suggests could lead to increased blooms on lakes as atmospheric CO 2 levels rise.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01234-7

This article is part of Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables , an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

Editor’s note: The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance. The metrics of Count and Share used to order Nature Index listings are based on an institution’s or country’s publication output in 82 natural-science journals, selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields. Nature Index recognizes that many other factors must be taken into account when considering research quality and institutional performance; Nature Index metrics alone should not be used to assess institutions or individuals. Nature Index data and methods are transparent and available under a creative commons licence at natureindex.com .

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Spaceflight R&D Spans Many Disciplines

Life Sciences Research Onboard the ISS National Lab

Earth benefits from spaceflight R&D span the biomedical, biotechnology, and agricultural industries.

At a Glance

• Microgravity induces changes in organisms ranging from viruses and bacteria to humans, including altered gene expression and DNA regulation, changes in cellular function and physiology, and 3D aggregation of cells.
• A variety of spaceflight-induced health conditions may serve as models of ground-based ailments such as aging, osteoporosis, and wound healing.
• Effects of microgravity on fluid dynamics allow improved growth of protein crystals and optimization of nanofluidics systems for biotechnology applications including drug delivery and medical diagnostics.

Spaceflight is advancing research in the fields of pharmaceutical research, disease modeling, regenerative medicine, crop science, and many more.

Gravity (and the lack thereof) has strong effects on many biological and physical processes. Previous spaceflight studies have demonstrated that microgravity can enable better understanding of fundamental biology and plant science and accelerate advancements in healthcare and medical technologies. These benefits are critical not only for human deep-space exploration but also for improving quality of life on Earth.

Examples of space-based life science investigations that promise to improve life on Earth include:

• Modeling human diseases: Spaceflight induces changes in body systems that result in bone loss, immune dysfunction, cardiovascular deconditioning, and loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength, among other effects. These responses of humans and model organisms to spaceflight in many cases mimic the onset of health-related outcomes associated with aging and debilitating chronic human diseases on Earth. Thus, spaceflight provides opportunities both for analysis of these rapid physical changes and for testing of therapeutics in accelerated models of aging or disease.
• Growing 3D cell cultures: Cell culture experiments on Earth provide a somewhat skewed model of how cells in a living organism might behave because they are in an artificial environment (e.g., lying flat at the bottom of a petri dish or floating in liquid in a flask). In microgravity, cells form complex 3D structures—more similar to tissues in the human body—providing a better model for studying cell behavior, advancing regenerative medicine, and testing the effects of new drugs.
• Studying plant biology: Studying plant behavior in the foreign environment of space allows increased understanding of fundamental plant biology. Gravity-sensing mechanisms within plants are critical to their survival on Earth, and buoyancy (a gravity-dependent phenomenon) is an important factor in various plant processes. Adaptive processes of plants during spaceflight may thus advance fundamental studies and agricultural applications such as improved crop yield, increased biofuel production, and development of new varieties. Moreover, symbiotic relationships between plants and microorganisms may be altered in space.
• Elucidating molecular mechanisms: Microgravity induces gene expression changes in all living things, including humans, plants, animals, cell cultures, and microbes. This may reveal new information about how specific groups of genes influence an organism’s health—information that is relevant beyond spaceflight adaptation. For example, these epigenetic changes can influence the differentiation of a stem cell or the pathogenicity of a bacterium—providing the opportunity for a broad range of investigations to understand fundamental mechanisms involved in human health and disease.
• Analyzing proteins and large molecules: The structures of proteins and other large molecules determine how they function. Crystallization is an important technique for studying macromolecular structure. Measuring a collection of identical molecules arranged in a repeating crystal lattice is easier than measuring an individual molecule. Some molecules form larger and more well-organized crystals in microgravity. Better crystals and better structural measurements will help scientists learn more about the functions of molecules that are important for health and disease—including natural proteins and hormones of the body as well as drug ingredients to treat illnesses.
• Advancing nanofluidics and biotechnology: Along with influencing biomedical phenomena, spaceflight also has dramatic effects on fluid dynamics. Gravity-dependent forces drive most fluid movement on Earth, so spaceflight provides a unique environment for studying the nuanced and complex underlying factors associated with biomedical devices that involve fluids—particularly those at the nanoscale, where forces such as diffusion are critical to the function of the technologies. Biomedical investigations can thus employ the space environment in the effort to improve drug delivery systems, healthcare diagnostic tools, and other nanofluidics-based biotechnologies.

These benefits are critical not only for human deep-space exploration but also for improving quality of life on Earth.

Examples of recent life science investigations onboard the ISS National Lab include:

• Protein crystallization studies by several pharmaceutical companies seeking to improve drug design—toward advancements in drug manufacturing, storage, specificity, and efficacy.
• Rodent research investigations by pharmaceutical companies and academic institutes to better understand bone and muscle diseases and test potential drugs.
• Cell culture experiments sponsored by the National Institutes of Health to study osteoporosis and immunodeficiency.
• Stem cell experiments by leading academic and nonprofit institutions to improve treatments for cardiovascular disease, the world’s #1 cause of death.
• Academic and commercial biotechnology organizations using the unique effects of spaceflight on fluid dynamics to advance precision medicine through improved diagnostics and drug delivery systems.
• Model-organism research sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs to explore potential repurposing of existing drugs for other uses.
• Academic crop science studies that are calling into question fundamental principles of plant biology.

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RNA's hidden potential: New study unveils its role in early life and future bioengineering

Study sheds light on the molecular evolution of rna and its potential applications in nanobiotechnology..

The beginning of life on Earth and its evolution over billions of years continue to intrigue researchers worldwide. The central dogma or the directional flow of genetic information from a deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) template to a ribose nucleic acid (RNA) transcript, and finally into a functional protein, is fundamental to cellular structure and functions. DNA functions as the blueprint of the cell and carries genetic information required for the synthesis of functional proteins. Conversely, proteins are required for the synthesis of DNA. Therefore, whether DNA emerged first or protein, continues to remain a matter of debate.

This molecular version of the "chicken and egg" question led to the proposition of an "RNA World." RNAs in the form of 'ribozymes' or RNA enzymes carry genetic information similar to DNA and also possess catalytic functions like proteins. The discovery of ribozymes further fueled the RNA World hypothesis where RNA served dual functions of "genetic information storage" and "catalysis," facilitating primitive life activities solely by RNA. While modern ribosomes are a complex of RNAs and proteins, ribozymes during early evolutionary stages may have been pieced together through the assembly of individual functional RNA units.

To test this hypothesis, Professor Koji Tamura, along with his team of researchers at the Department of Biological Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, conducted a series of experiments to decode the assembly of functional ribozymes. For this, they designed an artificial ribozyme, R3C ligase, to investigate how individual RNA units come together to form a functional structure. Giving further insight into their work published on 17 April 2024, in Life , Prof. Tamura states, "The R3C ligase is a ribozyme that catalyzes the formation of a 3',5'-phosphodiester linkage between two RNA molecules. We modified the structure by adding specific domains that can interact with various effectors."

Within ribosomes, which are the site of protein synthesis, RNA units assemble to function as Peptidyl Transferase Center (PTC) in a way such that they form a scaffold for the recruitment of amino acids (individual components of a peptide/protein) attached to tRNAs. This is an important insight into the evolutionary history of protein synthesis systems, but it is not sufficient to trace the evolutionary pathway based on the RNA World hypothesis.

To explore if the elongation of RNA, achieved by linking individual RNA units together, is regulated allosterically, the researchers altered the structure of the R3C ligase. They did this by incorporating short RNA sequences that bind adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a vital energy carrier molecule in cells, into the ribozyme. The team noted that R3C ligase activity was dependent on the concentration of ATP, with higher activity observed at higher concentrations of ATP. Further, an increase in the melting temperature (T m value) indicated that the binding of ATP to R3C ligase stabilized the structure, which likely influenced its ligase activity.

Similarly, on fusing an L-histidine-binding RNA sequence to the ribozyme, they noted an increase in ligase activity at increasing concentrations of histidine (a key amino acid). Notably, the increase in activity was specific to increasing concentrations of ATP or histidine; no changes were observed in response to other nucleotide triphosphates or amino acids. These findings suggest that ATP and histidine act as effector molecules that trigger structural conformational changes in the ribozyme, which further influence enzyme stability and activity.

ATP is the central energy carrier of the cell which supports numerous molecular processes, while, histidine is the most common amino acid found in the active site of enzymes, and maintains their acid-base chemistry. Given, the important roles of ATP and histidine in RNA interactions and molecular functions, these results provide novel insights into the role of RNA in early evolution, including the origin of the genetic code. Furthermore, engineered ribozymes such as the one developed in this study hold significant promise in a myriad of applications including targeted drug delivery, therapeutics, nano-biosensors, enzyme engineering, and synthesis of novel enzymes with uses in various industrial processes.

Overall, this study can offer insights into how the transition from the RNA World to the modern "DNA/Protein World" occurred. A fundamental understanding of the RNA World in turn, can enhance their use in real-life applications.

"This study will lead to the elucidation of the process of 'allostericity-based acquisition of function and cooperativity' in RNA evolution. The RNA-RNA interactions, RNA-amino acid interactions, and allostericity applied in this research can guide the fabrication of arbitrary RNA nanostructures, with various applications," concludes Prof. Tamura.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by Tokyo University of Science . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Yuna Akatsu, Hiromi Mutsuro-Aoki, Koji Tamura. Development of Allosteric Ribozymes for ATP and l-Histidine Based on the R3C Ligase Ribozyme . Life , 2024; 14 (4): 520 DOI: 10.3390/life14040520

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If Alien Life Is Found, How Should Scientists Break the News?

At a recent workshop, researchers and journalists debated how to announce a potential discovery of extraterrestrial life

By Sarah Scoles

Thomas Fuchs

If one day scientists discover evidence of extraterrestrial life, how will they tell the world ? How certain will they be of their discovery, and how will the public know what sense to make of it? Will the news cause fear, existential agony, dancing in the streets or merely a worldwide shrug? And how much will that reaction depend on the news’s delivery?

During four days in February and March astrobiologists, journalists, science communicators, communications scholars, ethicists and artists got together digitally at a NASA Astrobiology Program workshop to discuss those questions. Over Zoom the participants discussed how researchers might find that elusive evidence of alien life in the universe and how to talk publicly about those hypothetical discoveries. “We all have our own disciplines,” says Jack Madden, an astrobiologist-turned-artist, who attended the workshop. “And this is a multidisciplinary endeavor. So we’re isolated in the knowledge we have and what other people are doing.” Part of the goal of the project was to cinch that knowledge gap.

The motley crew at the event, called “Communicating Discoveries in the Search for Life in the Universe,” spent their four sessions together hashing out the lessons astrobiology could take from the past and the ways they might be applied to the future—a future in which, perhaps, scientists will find evidence of extraterrestrial biology.

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But here’s the problem with the future: no one can foretell it. Will a discovery of alien life ever happen? Is there any alien life ? What forms might that life and its discovery take ? And what will the headline writers of 2028 (or 2058 or 2888) do with all that information?

No one knows answers to those questions, but because scientists love to predict, they and the other workshop participants made educated guesses and gamed them out with an eye toward relaying information about aliens to the rest of this world. As with the question of extraterrestrial life itself, though, concrete answers and plans were hard to come by.

In trying to predict the future, the past is always key—history is wont to repeat itself, at least on Earth. And so the workshop attendees discussed old tales of extraterrestrial news, such as the story of ALH84001 . Also known as the “ Allan Hills meteorite ,” this space rock traveled from Mars to land in the wilds of Antarctica, creating a dark, sharp spot among the ice fields. The meteorite had formed more than four billion years ago and then shot to space around 16 million years ago. It spent most of that time wandering the cosmic wilderness before ending up on Earth’s southernmost continent 13,000 years ago.

In 1996 a group of scientists—some of whom were affiliated with NASA— claimed in the journal Science that the special space rock, which the team had scrutinized closely by electron microscope, seemed to have microscopic fossils whose tubular, wormy character resembled that of earthly bacteria. “The image spoke immediately to a person,” Madden says—to laypeople, who know what bacteria look like, and to the scientists, who had been exposed to the same images of microorganisms for their whole life. “Having an image in that situation was so powerful,” he continues. The meteorite also had organic molecules and carbonate globules that contained magnetite, which further supported the idea that the rock might shake up the field of biology.

The findings, which were thought to potentially be the first evidence of life from another planet, shot through the headlines like the meteorite itself. Then-president Bill Clinton even gave a public speech about it after NASA had held its own press conference. “If this discovery is confirmed, it will surely be one of the most stunning insights into our universe that science has ever uncovered,” Clinton said. “Its implications are as far-reaching and awe-inspiring as can be imagined.”

In the view of most scientists, though, that confirmation hasn’t come through. Decades later the results remain the subject of debate, but the scientific consensus is that the rock’s chemistry and embedded shapes could be explained with mere geology and chemistry, not biology. During the initial announcements, officials showed caution and hedged their bets. “Like all discoveries, this one will and should continue to be reviewed, examined and scrutinized,” Clinton said.

But some scientists, including some who attended the workshop, see the hype around this preliminary and ultimately contested result as a failure nonetheless. They think that the finding’s announcers jumped the gun, prematurely waving “jazz hands” (a phrase workshop participants used to indicate official hype). This type of overpromotion can undermine trust and pass sticky but likely incorrect information into the public domain.

The kind of debate that ALH84001 started, though, is an important part of the scientific process. And scientific results are more likely to spark discussion that could lead, haltingly, toward the right answer if they are high-stakes—and maybe even a little hyped. Take, for instance, the 2020 announcement that scientists had found evidence of phosphine on Venus—and that, as far as they could tell, only life could produce that chemical on the searing, pressurized planet.

The result made splashy headlines—at the workshop, both journalists and scientists acknowledged that splashy headlines are here to stay—and it also caught the attention of scientists who scrutinized the claim and disagreed, in a debate that, like with ALH84001, is still going on. “This is how science evolves,” says Sarah Rugheimer, an astrobiologist and chair for the public understanding of astronomy at York University in Ontario and a workshop participant. “If I make a small, middling claim, no one’s going to care about it or read about it.”

Future discoveries are likely to include more like Venus’s alleged phosphine: today’s scientists, including many of those who attended the workshop, are keen to use super-powerful observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope to search for “biosignatures” in the atmospheres of exoplanets—that is, chemicals they believe are produced by living beings.

Unlike with the Allan Hills meteorite, such data will provide nothing tangible to study, just photons and spectral fingerprints on computer screens. Proving that only living beings—and not, as with ALH84001, hypothetical quirks of geochemistry—have produced a purported biosignature is going to be difficult and maybe impossible. Scientists could send a probe to Venus to hunt for the hypothetical makers of phosphine, but any exoplanetary biosignature scientists find may be destined to be called “a sign that’s consistent with life” rather than “a sign of life” for a long time, if not forever. “I think that discovery of life is going to be an incremental process,” says Victoria Meadows, an astrobiologist at the University of Washington, who attended the workshop. “Unless something wanders past the camera and waves to us or encodes pi and transmits that in a radio signal, it’s not going to be definitive. And there’s going to be a lot of discussion going on.”

Scientists at the workshop and throughout history have worried that readers of news stories can’t hold that uncertainty or grasp the idea that follow-up research will be required. Some are not convinced that the public is scientifically literate enough to know or be shown that science is a process . But that’s perhaps an unfair assessment: often people see science as a set of settled results because that’s how it’s presented in public—in news stories and sometimes by scientists themselves. “At some level, we sort of hobble ourselves a bit in assuming that people can’t follow along, and I think that’s unfair,” Meadows says. In the workshop discussions, journalists called for agencies such as NASA to be more forthcoming, candid and timely—which would allow reporters to access the information and scientist sources they need to write about potential discoveries in a nuanced way. Many (though not all) scientists agreed, expressing frustration with the many levels of permission required to do public interviews and with statements carefully crafted by committee much too slowly for the news cycle.

Conveying where a result stands within ongoing debates while follow-up observations are happening is the key to good public information. But scientists are often reluctant to critique their peers’ work, and agencies such as NASA aren’t always keen to approve their researchers to do so. This makes it difficult, journalists at the workshop said, for the media or the public to evaluate a result’s status.

Something that could help with that is a set of “standards of evidence” for life claims—sort of like a key or legend to portray how many grains of salt to take with an alien life announcement. The standards would also show how those grains might dissolve as more evidence sluices in. “[The research process] is this arc of discovery, rather than a single point of discovery,” Meadows says. Scientists could come forward at any time during the research, including when results are far from certain, “as long as [they’re] clear about where [they] are in that process.”

Coming to the realization that the discovery of life, if it happens, will be an arc and not a point—and maybe a gray arc rather than a black-and-white one—was a process of its own for Rugheimer. “I started a little more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed way back when, and I thought we’d be able to” make a surefire discovery, she says. Now she’s taking a more practical approach. “The point when I pull out the champagne might just be what I consider a really strong signal but not something that might be 100 percent definite.”

To Adam Robinson, an astrobiologist at St. Petersburg College and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Biodefense Coordinator at the Florida Bureau of Labs, and a workshop participant, the process of looking for signs of extraterrestrial life—and the possibility of spending years discovering and interpreting these signs—isn’t frustrating. It is, he says, inspiring.

“It’s the whole idea of people planting trees for shade that they’ll never sit under,” he says. “I went to a conference two years ago, and I was sitting there listening to these people planning these planetary science missions [in which] they’d probably be dead when the data came back. And it’s awesome to see people just commit their lives and their whole careers to something that they may never see.”

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants tried to sum up their conclusions in shared Google docs, to mixed success. If there was one takeaway, it was that attendees of all sorts thought news of potential alien discoveries shouldn’t shy away from the caveats: good public reporting should talk about uncertainty, include criticism, discuss the arduous process of confirmation and be honest about how far in the future a yes or no to the “aliens?” question is likely to be. That kind of communication demonstrates transparency and gives important context, even if a headline doesn’t.

Much of the workshop’s discussion, somewhat contradictorily, was nonetheless about how scientists and agencies such as NASA could coordinate messages that reach the public about those same discoveries. Crafting a message so tightly, though, doesn’t typically engender trust or read as transparent—something journalists pointed out in discussions. And besides, it rarely works: Plan a big, choreographed press conference for your best biosignature candidate for Tuesday at 8:14 A.M. EDT, and someone can leak the results Sunday at zero dark thirty. If you write an understated headline for your press release, be prepared for a tabloid (or digital publication hungry for traffic) to run with “NASA Finds Aliens!!!”

And then there are the inevitable mixed messages that occur when people aren’t familiar with the research process. Take the Mars Sample Return mission, which is set to launch later this decade and will bring material from the Red Planet back to Earth, in part to search for evidence of life. In one of the workshop’s scenarios, participants considered what might happen if the mission returned remnants of something alive, which would leave people concerned that Martian germs might bring a new plague to Earth.

The chance that Mars has Earth-harming microbes is extremely small—but not zero. And that’s why scientists plan to treat all material brought back as if it could be very dangerous. “They’re going to be housed in a facility that essentially is what we use to manipulate deadly pathogens such as Ebola,” Robinson says—basically a biosafety level 4 lab meant to protect people outside and in from danger. “So people hear that, and they’re going to be like, ‘I’ve got a scientist telling me there’s probably nothing to worry about. Then why are they putting it in there if there’s nothing to worry about?’”

Another communication complication, according to the Zoom meeting attendees, is that a significant proportion of the public thinks that we already have found aliens. And who can blame people? Headlines have suggested as much over and over for years for titillating false alarms or inconclusive results. If a statement includes the words “found aliens,” that’s, sensibly, the part that sticks, even if it also says “might have,” and “possibly”—especially if it meshes with a reader’s, watcher’s or listener’s existing worldview.

To nobly convey uncertainty, the nature of the scientific process and ongoing debate, then, means to first debunk incorrect information. The fact that that incorrect information is out there, though, also suggests that maybe the discovery of extraterrestrials wouldn’t actually be that Earth-shattering. After all, people who think aliens are among us have just gone on with their life.

With all those complications (and more), Rugheimer was left, at the end of the workshop, thinking that perhaps the discussion had focused too much on the wrong things—specifically, message control.

No matter how scripted a press conference is, people are going to think what they’re going to think—and people being people, they’re going to think a cornucopia of things. We have to “be real,” Rugheimer says, about how the next potential alien discovery might go down. “Someone is going to find something they think is cool. They’re going to try to publish it first. They’re going to be overinflated in what that discovery is,” she says.

“This is what happens,” she adds. “We’ve seen this time and time again. That’s how science works, too.”

In fact, the historical scenarios the workshop examined basically all occurred like this—in direct contradiction to the plans the participants were making for the future. To expect that the future will somehow unfold differently while humans as a species remain the same is magical thinking, Rugheimer says. “I think we as a community need to come to peace with the fact that there’s only so much we can do to try to be careful,” she continues. “Because as soon as there’s an exciting discovery, no one is going to be careful. And that’s okay.”

Sure, she continues, it’s fine to think about and have Zoom meetings about how to communicate more responsibly than before. “But we also need to have some framework of how to handle it when it’s done wrong,” she says. “Because it will be.”

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USM Students, Alum Earn Graduate Research Fellowships

Thu, 04/18/2024 - 01:23pm | By: Van Arnold

Three University of Southern Mississippi (USM) students and a recent graduate have been awarded prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships that will provide substantial funding for their continued scientific pursuits.

The awardees include:

• Damien Cooper, a senior from Batesville, Miss., majoring in chemistry.
• Carmen Dunn, a second-year doctoral candidate from Lenoir City, Tenn.
• Zacchaeus Wallace, a senior from Jackson, Miss., majoring in polymer science and engineering.
• Baylor Lynch, a 2022 USM graduate (conservation biology) from Griffin, Ga.

The purpose of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is to help ensure the quality, vitality, and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. A primary goal is to broaden participation of the full spectrum of diverse talents in STEM. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Fellowships provide students with a three-year annual stipend of $37,000 along with a $16,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees (paid to the institution), as well as access to opportunities for professional development available to NSF-supported graduate students.

“These students have worked extremely hard to achieve this level of recognition, and we are certainly proud of them and their accomplishments,” said Dr. Chris Winstead, Dean of USM’s College of Arts and Sciences. “I am also very proud of the many faculty that have supported these students along the way. This recognition is a clear sign that our students, with support from an engaged and active faculty, are prepared to succeed at the highest levels. 

Added Winstead: “The fact that we have four awardees, representing three different disciplines in the college, is a great indicator of the depth of talent in both our students and faculty. As a dean, I really couldn’t be prouder. Helping students succeed is why we are here.”

Cooper works in the lab of Dr. Matthew Donahue, Associate Professor of chemistry and biochemistry. He has been a member of the Donahue Research Group since early 2021. The news of his fellowship caught Cooper completely off-guard.

“I could not believe it when I saw it. I was playing a game with a friend and a lab mate texted me to say the results were out,” said Cooper. “I had never jumped for joy in my life. I remember calling all of my folks and telling them about it. It was of the greatest news I had ever heard.”

Cooper’s research focuses on the synthesis and derivatization of a nitrogen heterocycle called piperidine. This compound is a structural motif found in many pharmaceutical drugs boasting a wide range of uses such as antihistamines, antivirals, antifungals, SSRI’s and more. In the lab, he targets ways to access different parts of the ring by adding and changing the functional groups attached.

Cooper plans to attend Rice University in the fall to pursue a doctorate in chemistry.

“With the help of this NSF fellowship, I will be able to focus on my research full-time and make further advances in the chemical space for the betterment of people worldwide,” said Cooper.

Dunn works in the lab of Dr. Zhe Qiang, Assistant Professor of polymer science. She expressed immense gratitude for the opportunity to apply for the fellowship and to ultimately realize that her hard work had paid off.

“More than anything, I was really overwhelmed with appreciation for the people who have supported me to this point,” said Dunn. “Without my PI (Dr. Qiang), my family, my mentors, and my group members, I could not have dreamed of having a shot at this.”

Dunn’s research focuses on sustainable polymer materials. Specifically, she is designing elastic dynamic networks with unique properties. Dunn has also worked with local schools and educators to design demonstrations and presentations to teach the importance of polymer sustainability and research in K-12 classrooms.

Dunn notes that going forward her research focus will shift to designing and implementing dynamic graft blend compatibilizers to potentially improve current recycling methods for polyethylene/polypropylene blends.

“Recycling and upcycling polymer blends is a large challenge for several reasons, and I am looking forward to seeing the potential impact of my work on this widespread issue,” said Dunn.

Wallace works in the lab of Dr. Tristan Clemons, Assistant Professor of polymer science. He described learning the news of his fellowship as a “wow” moment.

“As soon as I saw the email that morning, I called my parents and celebrated the news with them,” said Wallace. “This recognition is a testament to the time and effort I have dedicated to my success and my mission to better my community and contribute to a growing scientific future.”

Wallace’s research focuses on applying novel therapeutic strategies that reduce the undesirable effects of reactive oxygen species – a major catalyst for conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and many more common disease states.

“My intended field of specialization is transitional research aimed at studying and developing therapies for cancer metastasis and cardiovascular disease, the two most prevalent causes of death in the South and the world,” said Wallace.

Following graduation, Wallace plans to attend Vanderbilt University where he will pursue a doctorate in biomedical engineering.

Lynch previously worked in the lab of Dr. Michael Andres, Assistant Professor in the Division of Coastal Sciences, at USM’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. Lynch earned his undergraduate degree in conservation biology in 2022 and currently serves as an outdoor science instructor (K-12) at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

What was Lynch’s reaction to the news he had been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship?

“Upon opening my phone while half-asleep, an email from NSF instantly jolted me awake, mostly due to anxiety,” said Lynch. “However, after reading I was awarded the fellowship, I called my parents so they could relay the good news to my cat.”

Lynch’s early career research focus has centered on ecology, specifically within marine, estuarine, and riverine ecosystems.

“Throughout my career and into my future graduate studies, I have specialized in utilizing various chemical tracers to understand ecological processes in these environments,” he said.

Lynch plans to use his fellowship funding to pursue a master’s degree in fisheries and aquatic science at the University of Florida. His research focus will be on toxicology, examining the impacts of harmful substances on fish populations and water bodies throughout Florida.

Learn more about the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program and see the full list of awardees.

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In Memoriam: Andrew Armstrong, chemistry professor and business owner

Friday, Apr 19, 2024 • Greg Pederson :

Andrew Thurman Armstrong II, who worked as an associate professor of chemistry at The University of Texas at Arlington before going on to co-found a highly successful testing laboratory with his wife, passed away on March 7 at age 88.

Dr. Armstrong came to UTA in 1969 as an assistant professor of chemistry. He was promoted to associate professor in 1972 and left UTA in the early 1980s to focus on building his own company, Armstrong Forensic Laboratory, of which he was senior vice president until his passing.

He was born May 26, 1935 and attended North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) where he received a B.S. in Chemistry in 1958. He remained at NTSU and earned a master's degree in chemistry in 1959, then worked for two years as an instructor in chemistry at West Texas State University (now West Texas A&M University) in Canyon.

In 1961 he enrolled at Louisiana State University to begin doctoral work, and he earned a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from LSU in 1967. He worked for one year as a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA and one year as a visiting assistant professor at LSU before accepting a faculty position at UTA in 1969.

At UTA, Dr. Armstrong's fields of interest included physical and analytical chemistry, instrumentation, and industrial hygiene. He was among the faculty pioneers who established a robust research program in the department. He was also a popular instructor who received the College of Science Teacher of the Year Award in 1976.

In 1975 Dr. Armstrong and his wife, Kay, began providing analytical consulting services to the origin and cause industry as Armstrong Consultants. Origin and cause companies provide services for all major forensic investigation and engineering disciplines, including fire and explosion investigations. The Armstrongs bought their first gas chromatography machine and operated it from the utility room of their home.

Dr. Armstrong was the first to describe the use of high-resolution capillary column gas chromatography for the identification of ignitable liquids in fire debris. In 1977, he received the White Helmet Award from the City of Arlington Fire Department, the highest civilian award presented by the city. The department made him an honorary member that same year.

In 1981 the Armstrongs incorporated their business as Armstrong Forensic Laboratory, Inc. (AFLab). AFLab was the first private forensic laboratory serving the origin and cause industry. The company moved into an 800-square-foot warehouse and office facility in Arlington. In 1982 Dr. Armstrong resigned from his faculty position at UTA to devote his attention full-time to the new company.

AFLab provides comprehensive analytical laboratory services, consultation, and litigation support. Kay Armstrong took on the role of president and ran the business operations while Dr. Armstrong became senior vice president and oversaw the technical side of the company, becoming an international expert in ignitable liquid chemistry. Today AFLab has more than 30 employees.

In the 1980s the Armstrongs expanded the company's services to include general, environmental, and industrial hygiene analytical support. The company received an accreditation from the American Industrial Hygiene Association to its Quality Control Program in 1988.

In the 2000s, AFLab became one of a handful of private laboratories, in the world to be accredited by the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) for disciplines in drug chemistry, toxicology and trace evidence. The lab also received the Perry Johnson Laboratory Accreditation and began testing consumer products to meet Consumer Product Safety Commission requirements.

Among the accolades AFLab has received are the Salute to Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievements from the DFW Section of the American Chemical Society in 2001; the Forensic Science Award in Recognition of Technical and Administrative Contributions to ASTM-International Committee E-30, standards development, and the forensic science industry in 2007; and the Texas Family Business of the Year – Small Family Business, presented by Baylor University, Institute for Family Business in 2008.

Dr. Armstrong was a member of Phi Lambda Upsilon, the national chemistry honor society; Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society; the American Chemical Society, DFW Section; the Coblentz Society; Alpha Chi Sigma, a professional fraternity dedicated to promoting chemistry and the chemical sciences; American Institute of Chemistry; American Academy of Forensic Sciences; and American Industrial Hygiene Association.

A funeral service for Dr. Armstrong was held March 12 at Thompson’s Harveson & Cole Funeral Home in Fort Worth. Burial was held at Crowley Cemetery in Crowley.

The UTA College of Science, a Carnegie R1 research institution, is preparing the next generation of leaders in science through innovative education and hands-on research and offers programs in Biology, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Data Science, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Health Professions, Mathematics, Physics and Psychology. To support educational and research efforts visit the  giving page , or if you're a prospective student interested in beginning your #MaverickScience journey visit our  future students page .

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