Industry leaders have recognized for nearly 20 years that some sequences, such as those that can reconstruct pathogen genomes, should only be sent to trusted customers. Doing this requires screening orders to recognize potentially risky sequences (sequence screening) and screening customers’ identity and intended use for orders (customer screening).

Synthesis screening remains voluntary, inconsistent, and globally fragmented; it is easy to find companies or intermediaries that do not screen, but new standards, tools and regulations have changed incentives around screening. Synthesis screening has long been necessary to comply with export control regulations in over 50 countries, bur is now recommended by national-level guidance in multiple countries, leading AI developers, ISO standards, and the WHO.

IBBIS works to increase the share of synthesis orders for which sequences and customers are screened and support international standards that are inclusive and rigorous. Several IBBIS projects address this challenge, including our work on the Common Mechanism, Global DNA Synthesis Map, and Screening Standards.