Activities

Community BioFutures

The EBRC Community BioFutures initiative aims to build bioliteracy and engagement in the U.S. bioeconomy by empowering stakeholders and strengthening local bioeconomies through a national networking and resources infrastructure.

About ⇓
Goals ⇓
Events ⇓
Resources ⇓
Steering Committee ⇓
Support ⇓
About
As the bioeconomy continues to grow and diversify, public engagement, and the development of a robust, inclusive workforce becomes a high priority. To increase engagement and educate the next-generation of bioeconomy participants, we need to raise awareness of its potential, from foundational engineering biology to scalable technologies and consumer-ready products, goods, and services. EBRC will contribute to this initiative by establishing a national infrastructure that supports and connects local bioeconomy stakeholders to increase engineering biology engagement and education, workforce development, and industry/economic growth, promoting nation-wide bioliteracy.

Want to engage with us or get involved? Please reach out to education@ebrc.org
Project Goals, Milestones, and Benchmarks
Project Goals and Milestones
- To meet with educators, researchers, industry members, policymakers, and other stakeholders to identify the strengths of local bioeconomies, their challenges, and the resources necessary for robust networks;
- To facilitate discussions and collaboration between stakeholders by holding national and regional workshops. These workshops will help us to develop tools, platforms, and connections that foster visibility, growth, and sustainability of local bioeconomy networks and national bioliteracy; and
- To gather “Success Stories” about how local bioeconomies serve their communities to build bioliteracy.
Current Benchmarks
- Gathering information (strengths, weaknesses, resources) on local bioeconomy networks through surveys and interviews with EBRC members and near-network community members;
- Engaging with existing engineering biology and bioeconomy-related organizations throughout the U.S. to identify how to best support different bioeconomies (i.e., by exploring organization types, funding sources, participants and target audience, and programs’ goals).
Upcoming Events
Come to our first workshop, held virtually! More details to come.
Resources
Coming soon!

Resources we expect to highlight:
- Publications
- Success Stories!
- Discussion Forum
Steering Committee
Coming Soon! If you are interested in participating in EBRC’s Community BioFutures’ Steering Committee, please contact us at education@ebrc.org

The Community BioFutures steering committee is composed of key stakeholders from industry, education, government, and other relevant sectors to provide strategic guidance and expertise on EBRC’s role in advancing nationwide bioliteracy by:
- Shaping networking workshops to foster collaboration between local bioeconomies;
- Planning regional or local community events (in partnership with museums, zoos, libraries, or similar entities) to increase public engagement; and
- Offer general input to enhance the success of the EBRC Community BioFutures initiative.
Support
This work is currently supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Award Number 2341279. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Enabling Quality, Measurable Synthetic DNA Sequence Screening

This project aims to improve DNA synthesis screening by enabling the development of better tools and mechanisms for screening performance evaluation. Synthetic DNA enables life sciences research that can be applied to pressing societal challenges across many sectors, but could also be used in the development of biological parts, systems, or organisms that cause great harm to human, public, or environmental health. Many companies that produce and sell synthetic DNA screen ordered sequences to prevent customers from inappropriately accessing Sequences of Concern (SOCs). However, they lack tools to evaluate the performance of their screening systems. Such tools are crucial as technical capabilities in engineering biology, artificial intelligence, and other areas grow.

End-to-End Stress Testing (E2EST) of DNA Synthesis Screening

DNA synthesis is a powerfully enabling capability for engineering biology to address important challenges across sectors, but as these capabilities become more accessible, the biosecurity risks they pose rises. In 2024 and 2025, EBRC, with support from Sentinel Bio, will conduct end-to-end stress testing (E2EST) of nucleic acid synthesis providers. We will use customers with different attributes and sequences with different biorisk profiles to learn about provider customer, sequence, and follow-up screening practices.

Building International Best Practices For Robust Synthetic Nucleic Acid Screening

This project aims to establish a set of internationally recognized best practices for nucleic acid synthesis screening through a coordinated global approach. By engaging with academic, industry, government, and non-profit stakeholders, this initiative will build on EBRC’s previous work to enhance biosecurity and ensure screening practices are robust and resilient to evolving technological risks.

Malice Analysis: Assessing Biotechnology Research for Security Concerns

EBRC’s Malice Analysis program trains researchers and others associated with engineering biology to critically evaluate research for potential security concerns. By providing practitioners with the tools and a framework to conduct basic security analyses, EBRC hopes to support a culture in the field of engineering biology that incorporates the consideration and discussion of security into the research and development life-cycle.

EBRsee

A multimedia-based promotion of science for the public, EBRsee is an initiative to curate and produce podcasts, videos, and other content on concepts in engineering biology to increase public awareness and engagement.

Want to get involved or have an idea to share? Email education@ebrc.org

Global Forum for Engineering Biology

The EBRC Global Forum for Engineering Biology is an initiative dedicated to fostering collaboration, information exchange, and the development of national strategies for synthetic and engineering biology. The Global Forum aims to be an ongoing platform for dialogue and action, bringing together experts, policymakers, and leaders to advance the global bioeconomy. As part of this initiative, EBRC convenes international summits, develops resources, and supports international efforts aimed at addressing key global challenges such as standards, security, and sustainability.

Activities

Community BioFutures

The EBRC Community BioFutures initiative aims to build bioliteracy and engagement in the U.S. bioeconomy by empowering stakeholders and strengthening local bioeconomies through a national networking and resources infrastructure.

About

Project Goals, Milestones, and Benchmarks

Upcoming Events

Resources

Steering Committee

Support

Enabling Quality, Measurable Synthetic DNA Sequence Screening

End-to-End Stress Testing (E2EST) of DNA Synthesis Screening

Building International Best Practices For Robust Synthetic Nucleic Acid Screening

Malice Analysis: Assessing Biotechnology Research for Security Concerns

EBRsee

A multimedia-based promotion of science for the public, EBRsee is an initiative to curate and produce podcasts, videos, and other content on concepts in engineering biology to increase public awareness and engagement. Want to get involved or have an idea to share? Email education@ebrc.org

Global Forum for Engineering Biology

A multimedia-based promotion of science for the public, EBRsee is an initiative to curate and produce podcasts, videos, and other content on concepts in engineering biology to increase public awareness and engagement.

Want to get involved or have an idea to share? Email education@ebrc.org