Biotechnology is transforming medicine, agriculture, and manufacturing while emerging as an increasingly important domain of national security, economic competition, and geopolitics. Advances in gene editing, synthetic biology, cellular programming, genomics, neuroscience, as well as the convergence of biology with artificial intelligence, are expanding our ability to understand and engineer living systems. At the same time, these developments raise complex policy questions related to biosecurity, regulation, ethics, and geopolitical competition. As governments around the world invest heavily in biotechnology and seek to shape its development, policymakers must grapple with both the opportunities and risks created by this rapidly evolving domain.
This course examines the policy and geopolitical dimensions of emerging biotechnology. Students will develop a foundational understanding of key biotechnology platforms and concepts from the perspective of future policymakers, strategists, and public leaders, who will need to grapple with the balance between promoting innovation, managing risks, and shaping the rules that govern biotechnology’s development. We will explore how governments promote life sciences innovation through research funding, regulation, commercialization, and industrial policy; assess opportunities and risks, particularly in national security, including those resulting from the convergence of biotechnology with AI and engineering; examine the unfolding strategic competition in biotech between the U.S. and China, as well as the national strategies of other countries including Japan, Israel, India, the UK, and France; and consider governance and policy challenges surrounding issues like gene editing, biological AI models that can design novel viruses, and human enhancement. In addition to developing technical literacy, students will explore analytical frameworks for evaluating tradeoffs among innovation, security, competitiveness, and international cooperation in one of the most dynamic areas of technological change