Biosafety

A researcher in Russia’s Far East has died after contracting pneumonic plague in a laboratory setting, with authorities hospitalizing approximately 200 close contacts for quarantine monitoring. The disease has drawn external scrutiny of safety management at Russia’s high-containment biological laboratories, and the State Department has asked the U.S. embassy in Moscow to monitor the situation.

Researchers used artificial intelligence to design 16 novel viruses not found in nature, sparking widespread discussion in the global biosafety community. Scientists are calling for strengthened regulatory frameworks for AI applications in biology.