Biosafety Now is Growing

Biosafety Now Welcomes Seven Distinguished Individuals to its Leadership Team.

Biosafety Now is pleased to announce the addition of seven prominent individuals to its leadership team. Their collective expertise will further advance our organization's mission to demand effective oversight of research involving dangerous pathogens.

An updated list of our Board of Directors and Advisory Board can be found here: https://biosafetynow.org/team/

Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Bhattacharya is a Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research, and a Senior Fellow by courtesy at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute, and the Hoover Institution. He directs Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. Dr. Bhattacharya’s research focuses on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, emphasizing the role of government programs, biomedical innovation, and economics. Dr. Bhattacharya’s broader research interests encompass the implications of population aging for future population health and medical spending in developed countries, the measurement of physician performance tied to physician payment by insurers, and the role of biomedical innovation on health. He has published more than 170 articles in top peer-reviewed scientific journals in medicine, economics, health policy, epidemiology, statistics, law, and public health, among other fields. He holds an M.D. and Ph.D. in economics, both earned at Stanford University. Dr. Bhattacharya’s recent research focuses on the epidemiology of covid and an evaluation of policy responses to the epidemic.

Neil Harrison, Ph.D.
Dr. Harrison is a Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University and a former Director of Graduate Studies for Pharmacology at Columbia (2012-2017) and for Neuroscience at Weill-Cornell (2001-2005). He leads a research laboratory specializing in neurophysiology, biophysics, and pharmacology, with a focus on ion channels and their role in neurological disorders. He has published extensively in these fields, with over 160 scientific publications, many of which are highly cited. Harrison’s recent research has focused on viral ion channels, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, where his lab studied the SARS-CoV-2 envelope (E) protein. In 2022, he co-authored an influential paper titled “A call for an independent inquiry into the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus” with economist Jeffrey Sachs on the origins of COVID-19, contributing to the global discourse on the pandemic and the importance of investigating its origins.

Jamie Metzl, Ph.D., J.D.
Dr. Metzl is the Founder and Chair of OneShared.World, a global social movement, and serves as a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He is also a faculty member at NextMed Health and an expert with Singularity University. His latest book, Superconvergence: How the Genetics, Biotech and AI Revolutions Will Transform Our Lives, Work, and World, was released in June 2024. Jamie is the author of the bestseller Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity, as well as the acclaimed science fiction novels Genesis Code and Eternal Sonata, among other works.

A frequent commentator in national and international media, Jamie’s syndicated columns and writings on science, technology, and global affairs are featured in publications worldwide. In 2019, he was appointed to the World Health Organization’s expert advisory committee on human genome editing, and in March 2023, he served as the lead witness in the first congressional hearings on pandemic origins.

Beyond his writing and media presence, Jamie has a diverse professional background. He was a former partner at a global private equity firm, serves on advisory boards for multiple biotechnology and other companies, and helped establish the WisdomTree BioRevolution Exchange Traded Fund (ticker: WDNA). His previous roles include service with the U.S. National Security Council, the State Department, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the United Nations in Cambodia.

Jamie holds a Ph.D. from Oxford, a law degree from Harvard, and an undergraduate degree from Brown University. In addition to his professional accomplishments, he is an avid ironman triathlete and ultramarathon runner.

Andrew Noymer, Ph.D.
Dr. Noymer is an Associate Professor of Population Health & Disease Prevention at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Program in Public Health. He is a specialist in infectious disease mortality, he has closely studied prior modern pandemics of influenza (e.g., 2009, 1968, 1957, and the most severe, 1918) from a demographic, epidemiological, and social perspective. Having foreshadowed that the coronavirus pandemic would have severe outcomes, Dr. Noymer has been a fixture in the media providing public health awareness on COVID-19 – one of the most significant global health events of the early 21st century. He has been quoted in New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and many other outlets. Dr. Noymer holds a PhD degree from Berkeley, where he was also an NIA and NICHD trainee in demography, an MSc degree from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and an AB from Harvard University. He is a member of the United Nations/World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 mortality estimation.

Robert R. Redfield, M.D.
Dr. Redfield is a prominent virologist and public health leader with over 45 years of medical experience. From 2018 to 2021, he served as the 18th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. During this time, Dr. Redfield played a critical role in guiding the CDC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and was a key member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Dr. Redfield’s career is marked by his deep commitment to virology, particularly in the study of HIV and other infectious diseases. Prior to his tenure at the CDC, he spent more than 20 years as a U.S. Army physician and medical researcher at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, where he founded the Department of Retroviral Research. His groundbreaking work in HIV/AIDS research included demonstrating the importance of heterosexual transmission, developing the Walter Reed staging system for HIV infection, and identifying active HIV replication across all stages of the disease.

In 1996, Dr. Redfield co-founded the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. There, he served as Director of Clinical Care and Research, Chief of Infectious Diseases, Vice Chair of Medicine, and a tenured professor. His leadership extended to providing care for over 5,000 HIV patients in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area, as well as contributing to various national and international HIV/AIDS advisory bodies. After his time at the CDC, Dr. Redfield served as senior public health advisor to Governor Larry Hogan and the State of Maryland. He currently holds the position of Senior Visiting Fellow for biosecurity and public health policy at the Heritage Foundation. Dr. Redfield earned both his Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Medicine degrees from Georgetown University, laying the foundation for his extensive career in virology and infectious diseases. In March 2023, Dr. Redfield served as the key witness in a U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee hearing titled “Investigating the Origins of COVID-19,” the first public hearing on the origin of the virus. In July 2024, he was also the key witness in a U.S. Senate committee hearing titled “Oversight of U.S. Taxpayer-Funded High-Risk Viral Research.”

Matt Ridley, Ph.D.
Dr. Ridley is a distinguished science writer with a robust scientific background, holding a Ph.D. in zoology from Oxford University. Renowned for his work in exploring the origins of COVID-19, he co-authored the influential book Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19 with Alina Chan. Prior to this, Ridley authored several award-winning books, including The Red Queen and How Innovation Works. Ridley’s career as a journalist has seen him serve as the science editor at The Economist and contribute regularly to prominent publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, and The Spectator. His expertise and insights have extended beyond journalism; from 2013 to 2021, he was a member of the House of Lords, where he contributed to the Science and Technology Select Committee and the Artificial Intelligence Select Committee. In recognition of his contributions to literature and science, Ridley is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Academy of Medical Sciences, as well as a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Simon Wain-Hobson, Ph.D.
Dr. Wain-Hobson is an emeritus professor of Virology at the Institute Pasteur, Paris. Wain-Hobson obtained a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Oxford in 1977, served as a post-doctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science from 1977 to 1980, and thereafter moved to the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He and his colleagues were the first to sequence the genome of the virus that causes AIDS. Wain-Hobson won the André Lwoff prize in 1996 and Athena prize from the French Academy of Sciences in 2007 and is Officier de la Légion d’Honneur. Wain-Hobson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2022 for his services to the field of virology.

About Biosafety Now
Biosafety Now is dedicated to demanding effective national- and international-level oversight that will reduce the risks posed by research involving dangerous pathogens. The organization believes that public health and safety require all high-risk research with such pathogens to be subject to mandatory, independent oversight. This can be achieved without negatively impacting science, national security, or public health. Furthermore, Biosafety Now is convinced that the public has a central role in advocating for, implementing, and participating in the oversight of research on dangerous pathogens.

Learn more at:

https://biosafetynow.org/

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