The University of Texas at AustinAustin, Texas
AI, Genomics,
and Biosecurity
Safeguarding the Future of Biological Innovation
- Duration
- Two days
- Scale
- 100–150 participants
- Host
- UT Austin
- Scope
- AI × Genomics × Biosecurity
Sponsors and partners
Aclid
Programming and speaker selection are determined independently by the organizer.
Where AI capability meets biological capability — and the safeguards needed to deploy both responsibly.
Input
AI capability
Foundation models, scientific agents, autonomous experimentation.
Input
Biological capability
Genomics, sequence design, synthesis, increasingly programmable biology.
Consequence
Safeguards & governance
Evaluation, screening, access controls, standards, oversight.
Bringing together leaders in artificial intelligence, genomics, synthetic biology, biosecurity, and policy to shape the safe development of increasingly capable biological AI systems.
Speakers
Launch roster
Kevin Esvelt, PhD
MIT Media Lab
Joel Shor
Allen Institute / Move37 Labs
James Diggans, PhD
Twist Bioscience
Gigi Gronvall, PhD
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security / Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Ilias Georgakopoulos-Soares, PhD
The University of Texas at Austin
Varun Rai
LBJ School of Public Affairs and Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
Andrew Ellington
Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin
Zheng Xia, PhD
Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin
Yanjun Gao, PhD
Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Colorado School of Medicine
Ilya J. Finkelstein, PhD
Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin
Nadav Brandes, PhD
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Center for Human Genetics & Genomics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Amina Qutub, PhD
Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at San Antonio
Miha Vindis, PhD
Department of Political Science, Texas State University
Bruce Wittmann, PhD
Microsoft
Pinar Demetci, PhD
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Jasper Götting
SecureBio
Stephen C. Ekker, PhD
The University of Texas at Austin
Shen Zhou Hong
Active Site
Katrina Tremaglio
Active Site
Barbara Cheifet, PhD
Nature Biotechnology
Ishan Mehta
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Kevin Flyangolts
Aclid
Additional speakers to be announced
Themes
Eight areas where AI capability, biological capability, safeguards, and governance meet.
AI for Biological Discovery
Scientific research agents, AI-assisted hypothesis generation, autonomous workflows, and AI-enabled experimentation.
Genomic Foundation Models
Foundation models for DNA, RNA, proteins, and multi-omics; capabilities, limitations, and emerging applications.
AI Capability Evaluation
How biological capabilities of frontier AI systems and agents should be measured before and after deployment.
Red-Teaming & Safeguards
Evaluation methodologies, access controls, monitoring, model safeguards, secure environments, and constraint adherence.
DNA Synthesis
Nucleic-acid screening, sequence-design systems, and safeguards at the interface between computational designs and physical biology.
Genomic Privacy
Privacy-preserving genomics, secure data access, training-set integrity, and protection of sensitive biological information.
Autonomous Laboratories
Opportunities and risks created by increasingly agentic systems connected to computational and experimental tools.
Governance
Scientific norms, industry standards, policy approaches, oversight mechanisms, and international coordination.
Preliminary programme
Two days
Monday, March 22
Opening & main sessions
- Opening reception and welcome
- Opening keynote / featured conversation
- Keynotes and technical sessions
- Panels
- Poster session
- Workshops
- Networking and evening event
Session times to be announced.
Tuesday, March 23
Security & governance
- Technical sessions
- Biosecurity exercises and workshops
- Governance and policy discussion
- Closing roundtable
- Next-steps discussion
Session times to be announced.
Detailed program and additional speakers will be announced shortly.
Full programmeWho should attend
An interdisciplinary room by design — the safeguards question cannot be answered from any one of these fields alone.
- Researchers
- AI developers
- Biosecurity
- Biotech
- Policy & funders
- Students & early career
Location
Austin, Texas
A research university with concentrated strength across computing, the life sciences, and public policy, in a city with a substantial biotechnology community.
- Institution
- The University of Texas at Austin
- City
- Austin, Texas
- Dates
- March 22–23, 2027
- Venue
- Joe C. Thompson Conference Center
Sponsors and partners
Sponsors and partners
- Gold Sponsor
- Twist Bioscience
- Silver Sponsor
- Texas Global Event Fund, Cockrell School of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
- Sponsorship in Kind
- Genome Research, Patterns (Cell Press)
- Bronze Sponsor
- Aclid
- Institutional partners
- Announced soon
Sponsors and partners
Sponsors and partners
Registration
Registration is open
Registration is handled through the university's Cvent registration system. Rates are listed below; select in-person or online attendance when you register.
Call for abstracts
Abstracts are open
Technical talks and posters across all eight conference themes. 250–350 words. Deadline: January 9, 2027.
Conference organizer
Ilias Georgakopoulos-Soares, PhD
The University of Texas at Austin
Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Austin, whose research integrates artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, computational biology, and genomics.