CFR Senior Fellow for Global Health Laurie Garrett explains the conundrum of dual-use research of concern (DURC), in which the same experiments that allow scientists to understand pandemics can also create dangerous pathogens. Combined with advances in synthetic biology and increasingly affordable technologies, there is the possibility for a true biology revolution.

The Supreme Court ruled on June 13, 2013, that Myriad Genetics could not patent human genes they isolated from the bloodstream, because the company "did not create anything," but that synthetic forms of the genes may be eligible for patents.

James C. Greenwood and Robert Langer discuss recent advances in the biotechnology industry, areas of potential growth and application, and their significance for U.S. competitiveness.

James C. Greenwood and Robert Langer discuss recent advances in the biotechnology industry, areas of potential growth and application, and their significance for U.S. competitiveness.

James C. Greenwood and Robert Langer discuss recent advances in the biotechnology industry, areas of potential growth and application, and their significance for U.S. competitiveness.

Laurie Garrett discusses the mistakes and misjudgments made by government officials in response to the anthrax attacks of 2001 and provides recommendations for what should be done now.

Watch David Rothkopf, president and chief executive officer of Garten Rothkopf, and C. Ford Runge, distinguished McKnight university professor of applied economics at the University of Minnesota, discuss the potential impact of the increasing demand for biofuels on global energy and food security.

Listen to David Rothkopf, president and chief executive officer of Garten Rothkopf, and C. Ford Runge, distinguished McKnight university professor of applied economics at the University of Minnesota, discuss the potential impact of the increasing demand for biofuels on global energy and food security.

This paper seeks to place the divergent approaches of the European Union and United States toward the introduction and marketing of genetically modified (GM) foods and seeds in a broader context. It argues that an important key to understanding why Europe and the United States have chosen to regulate identical technologies in such a dissimilar fashion has to do with recent changes in politics of risk regulation in Europe.

The purpose of this report is to help create a more strategic policy on GM foods in the U.S. Its main product will be a major article that (a) articulates why the next generation of GM foods is a vitally important innovation, and (b) details policies for managing the environmental, health, trade, research and investment issues that arise in the GM food debate. Through a series of meetings in the U.S., along with efforts to catalyze a similar set of meetings in Europe, we will focus on the need for the specifics of a sensible long-term strategy.

Executive summary of a recent book by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council of the National Academies. The book examines how biotechnologies are enabling previously unimagined applications, specifically examining questions of terrorism and national security.

Biotechnology’s advance could give malefactors the ability to manipulate life processes—and even affect human behavior.