Skip to main content
AI, Genomics & Biosecurity

The University of Texas at AustinAustin, Texas

AI, Genomics,
and Biosecurity

Safeguarding the Future of Biological Innovation

View programmeJoin updates
Duration
Two days
Scale
100–150 participants
Host
UT Austin
Scope
AI × Genomics × Biosecurity

Gold Sponsor

Twist Bioscience

Programming and speaker selection are determined independently by the organizer.

Where AI capability meets biological capability — and the safeguards needed to deploy both responsibly.

  1. Input

    AI capability

    Foundation models, scientific agents, autonomous experimentation.

  2. Input

    Biological capability

    Genomics, sequence design, synthesis, increasingly programmable biology.

  3. 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.

About the conference

Speakers

Launch roster

All speakers

  • 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

Additional speakers to be announced

Themes

Eight areas where AI capability, biological capability, safeguards, and governance meet.

  1. AI for Biological Discovery

    Scientific research agents, AI-assisted hypothesis generation, autonomous workflows, and AI-enabled experimentation.

  2. Genomic Foundation Models

    Foundation models for DNA, RNA, proteins, and multi-omics; capabilities, limitations, and emerging applications.

  3. AI Capability Evaluation

    How biological capabilities of frontier AI systems and agents should be measured before and after deployment.

  4. Red-Teaming & Safeguards

    Evaluation methodologies, access controls, monitoring, model safeguards, secure environments, and constraint adherence.

  5. DNA Synthesis

    Nucleic-acid screening, sequence-design systems, and safeguards at the interface between computational designs and physical biology.

  6. Genomic Privacy

    Privacy-preserving genomics, secure data access, training-set integrity, and protection of sensitive biological information.

  7. Autonomous Laboratories

    Opportunities and risks created by increasingly agentic systems connected to computational and experimental tools.

  8. Governance

    Scientific norms, industry standards, policy approaches, oversight mechanisms, and international coordination.

All themes in detail

Preliminary programme

Two days

  1. 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.

  2. 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 programme

Who 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
Who the meeting is for

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.

Attend the conference
Institution
The University of Texas at Austin
City
Austin, Texas
Dates
March 22–23, 2027
Venue
Announced soon

Sponsors and partners

Sponsors and partners

Gold Sponsor
Twist Bioscience
Institutional partners
Announced soon
SponsorsSponsorship inquiries

Stay in the loop

Join conference updates

Registration, speakers, poster submissions, and travel-support announcements.

The mailing list opens soon.

It will carry announcements on registration, speakers, the programme, poster submissions, and travel support.

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.

About the conferenceContact