On Wednesday 14 May 2025, Bureau Biosecurity will be organising the first international biosecurity symposium. Internationally renowned speakers will talk about biosecurity and dual-use.

As in previous years, the Biosecurity Knowledge Day attracted many enthusiastic participants this year. The Knowledge Day focused a lot on Artificial Intelligence.

During the Biosecurity Knowledge Day, the Biosecurity Escaperoom was launched. In the escaperoom, participants take on the challenge of solving a biosecurity scenario.

In the fall, several publications were published that are important for biosecurity. The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI-bio) published a report on the management of risks of biodesign tools.

The World Health Organization (WHO) published a report in October containing the findings of an international horizon scan on dual-use research of concern (DURC) in the life sciences.

It was exciting until the last minute whether it could go ahead, but we are happy that we can look back on a successful Knowledge Day.

In October, Rik Bleijs was elected co-chair of the steering committee of the International Experts Groups of Biosafety and Biosecurity Regulators (IEGBBR).

Here we present another current scenario with regard to biosecurity. This time the scenario is based on a recently published article about orphan material.