Jonas Sandbrink

Biography

Jonas Sandbrink is a Member of Technical Staff at the UK AI Safety Institute.

Previously, Jonas was a researcher at the University of Oxford, where his work focused on the implications of synthetic biology and artificial intelligence for biological security risks. He has served as a Biosecurity Advisor to the UK Cabinet Office and Google DeepMind. Jonas has interned at the German Parliament and has worked as a consultant for the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Global Biological Policy and Programs team. Before focusing on security aspects of emerging technologies, he researched platform vaccine technologies and infectious disease epidemiology.

Jonas is currently a Fellow with the Arms Control Negotiation Academy. He was an Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an Ending Bioweapons Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks. Jonas holds a Bachelor in Medical Sciences from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. (DPhil) from Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford.

Publications

AI-bio risks

Sandbrink JB. Artificial intelligence and biological misuse: Differentiating risks of language models and biological design tools. arXiv; 2023. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2306.13952

Biotechnology governance

Millett P, Alexanian T, Brink KR, Carter SR, Diggans J, Palmer MJ, Ritterson R, Sandbrink JB, and Wheeler NE. Beyond Biosecurity by Taxonomic Lists: Lessons, Challenges, and Opportunities. Health Security http://doi.org/10.1089/hs.2022.0109

Smith JA, Sandbrink JB. Biosecurity in an age of open science. PLOS Biology 2022;20:e3001600. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001600.

Sandbrink JB, Alley EC, Watson MC, Koblentz GD, Esvelt KM. Insidious Insights: Implications of viral vector engineering for pathogen enhancement. Gene Ther 2022:1–4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41434-021-00312-3.

Sandbrink JB, Hobbs H, Swett JL, Dafoe A, Sandberg A. Differential technology development: a responsible innovation principle for navigating technology risks. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network; 2022. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4213670

Sandbrink J, Ahuja J, Swett J, Koblentz G, Standley C. Mitigating Biosecurity Challenges of Wildlife Virus Discovery and Characterisation. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network; 2022. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4035760.

Sandbrink JB, Koblentz GD. Biosecurity risks associated with vaccine platform technologies. Vaccine 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.02.023.

Pannu J, Sandbrink JB, Watson M, Palmer MJ, Relman DA. Protocols and risks: when less is more. Nat Protoc 2021:1–2. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-021-00655-6.

Musunuri S, Sandbrink JB, Monrad JT, Palmer MJ, Koblentz GD. Rapid Proliferation of Pandemic Research: Implications for Dual-Use Risks. MBio n.d.;0:e01864-21. https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01864-21.

Sandbrink JB, Watson MC, Hebbeler AM, Esvelt KM. Safety and security concerns regarding transmissible vaccines. Nature Ecology & Evolution 2021;5:405–6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01394-3.

Epidemiology

Leech G, Rogers-Smith C, Monrad JT, Sandbrink JB, Snodin B, Zinkov R, et al. Mask wearing in community settings reduces SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2022;119:e2119266119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119266119.

Altman G, Ahuja J, Monrad JT, Dhaliwal G, Rogers-Smith C, Leech G, et al. A dataset of non-pharmaceutical interventions on SARS-CoV-2 in Europe. Sci Data 2022;9:145. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01175-y.

Sharma M, Mindermann S, Rogers-Smith C, Leech G, Snodin B, Ahuja J, et al. Understanding the effectiveness of government interventions against the resurgence of COVID-19 in Europe. Nat Commun 2021;12:5820. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26013-4.

Vaccine technologies

Sandbrink JB, Koblentz GD. Biosecurity risks associated with vaccine platform technologies. Vaccine 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.02.023.

Monrad JT, Sandbrink JB, Cherian NG. Promoting versatile vaccine development for emerging pandemics. Npj Vaccines 2021;6:1–7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-021-00290-y.

Sandbrink JB, Shattock RJ. RNA Vaccines: A Suitable Platform for Tackling Emerging Pandemics? Front Immunol 2020;11:608460. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.608460.

Non academic writing

ChatGPT could make bioterrorism horrifyingly easy
Vox, 2023

How to minimize COVID’s impacts once the federal emergency “ends”
Together with Lynn Klotz
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 2023

Pandemic Pathogens as Biological Weapons: Revisiting German Biodefense
Together with Janika Schmitt
49security, 2023

As self-spreading vaccine technology moves forward, dialogue on its risks should follow
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2022

Media coverage of my work

Can we stop the next pandemic by seeking out deadly viruses in the wild?
Vox, 2022

Making Science More Open Is Good for Research—but Bad for Security
WIRED, 2022

The controversial quest to make a ‘contagious’ vaccine
National Geographic, 2022

When scientific information is dangerous
Vox, 2022

Kevin Esvelt and Jonas Sandbrink on Risks from Biological Research
Hear this Idea, 2022 (Podcast)