KARACHI: Highlighting emerging biosecurity challenges, speakers at a workshop held on Saturday underscored the need for coordination across government, health, research, security, trade and scientific communities to evolve biosecurity from a compliance requirement into a shared culture of responsibility.
Held under the theme “Protecting Science. Securing Innovation. Preventing Biological Threats,” the workshop was organised by Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) at Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital & Research Centre (SIDH&RC).
It focused on how advances in biotechnology, artificial intelligence, genomic technologies and increasingly connected laboratories are creating new opportunities for science while also introducing new biosecurity challenges.
The event opened with an online presentation by Dr M. Adeel representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who spoke about the national biosecurity system within the broader international framework.
He highlighted the interconnected roles of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), international health regulations, biosafety and export-control mechanisms and discussed the evolving national framework, while focusing on Pakistan’s Biological Weapons Convention Implementation Act, 2026, and the importance of effective implementation, coordination and science-based regulation.
A central message emerging from the session was that modern biosecurity cannot be addressed through a single institution or regulatory instrument. Instead, it requires coordination across government, health, research, security, trade and scientific communities.
The workshop also highlighted the growing convergence of AI, biotechnology and other emerging technologies, making horizon scanning and responsible governance increasingly important.
The session led by Dr Bilal Ahmed Khan, Principal Scientist, Virology at DUHS, examined the distinction between biosafety and biosecurity and emphasised the importance of protecting biological materials, information, equipment and expertise from loss, theft, misuse, diversion and unauthorised access.
The presentation drew particular attention to insider threats, emphasising that biosecurity risks do not necessarily originate from deliberate malicious actors and that weak security culture, inadequate training, complacency, poor documentation and failures in material accountability could also create significant vulnerabilities.
Participants were introduced to practical areas of biosecurity control, including physical security, personnel reliability, material control and accountability, transport security and information security.
The workshop then moved from concepts to application through a dedicated session on laboratory biosecurity risk assessment by Dr M. Zohaib from SIDH&RC.
He introduced participants to a structured approach for identifying valuable assets, potential threats and vulnerabilities, assessing likelihood and consequences, and determining an overall level of risk.
A key feature of the programme was an interactive tabletop exercise on biosecurity risk assessment, jointly facilitated by Dr Zohaib and Dr Khan. Rather than treating biosecurity as a purely theoretical subject, the exercise required participants to apply risk-assessment principles to a practical scenario and reconsider risk when circumstances changed.
Dr Uzma Urooj Malik from the Department of Biochemistry, Karachi University (KU), explored cyber biosecurity, the intersection of biology, cybersecurity and cyber-physical systems, and the vulnerabilities emerging as laboratories become increasingly digitised and connected.
The workshop highlighted how emerging technologies can expand the capabilities of legitimate research while simultaneously creating new pathways for misuse. Responsible scientific conduct, personnel awareness, strong access controls, secure digital systems, monitoring, training and risk-based governance were emphasised as important components of mitigation.
Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2026
