In February 2025, on the 50th anniversary of the 1975 international meeting on recombinant DNA molecules at the Asilomar Conference Grounds, the “The Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology” summit was held. On June 12, a series of 27 entreaty statements, each endorsed by at least 30 summit participants, were published, including several co-authored and endorsed by IBBIS staff.

The entreaties grew out of working groups across the summit’s five themes:

1. Biotechnologies beyond conventional containment: Discussions included the intersection of biotechnology and conservation, public infrastructure to support the use of biotechnology outside traditional laboratory settings, and risk evaluation frameworks such as “environmental safety levels” to complement the biosafety levels developed at the 1975 Asilomar meeting.
2. Pathogens research & biological weapons: Preventing the intentional misuse of biotechnology to cause harm was not on the agenda in 1975. In 2025, Asilomar participants discussed “red lines” in biological research and how to make biological weapons obsolete.
3. Artificial intelligence and biotechnology: This theme explored governance of data and models to enable the great rewards expected from AI in biosciences while implementing effective risk reduction, and resulted in a single entreaty combining the results from several working groups.
4. Synthetic cells: The construction of a fully synthetic cell has been long heralded, whether a top-down remaking of genomes or a bottom-up effort to assemble cells from well-understood molecules. This theme split into working groups on safeguarding the benefits of synthetic cells, addressing risks from mirror life, and discussing synthetic cells beyond bacteria in the lab, including synthetic human chromosomes and environmental release.
5. Framing biotechnology’s future: This theme asked what or who has been missing from discussions, to critique, and to say “here’s another way to move forward” through a fuller engagement with communities invested in biotechnology’s futures, and the frames that matter to each. Entreaties include calls for a sustainable and equitable bioeconomy, a solidarity bioeconomy, broadening science education, a call to establish indigenous biotechnology, and a statement on religious faith and biotechnology.

IBBIS staff participated in discussions across all five themes, and authored or endorsed the following entreaties:

• Risk-benefit analysis worksheet for biotechnology intended for environmental release. Zack Abbott, Alonso Flores, Richard Murray. (Tessa Alexanian and Piers Millett among the 83 endorsers.)
• Identifying and Addressing the Risk of the Environmental Release of Organisms — Engineered or Natural. Yonatan Chemla, Tessa Alexanian, Felix Moronta Barrios, Gozde Demirer, Alonso Flores, Smruthi Karthikeyan, Ariel B. Lindner, Becky Mackelprang, John Marken, Aishwarya Sparky Mitra, Kutubuddin A. Molla, Larisa Rudenko, Mitchell J. Syberg-Olsen, Felicia Wu, Jonathan (Joff) Silberg, Christopher A. Voigt. (77 endorsers.)
• Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Biotechnology. Yana Bromberg, Russ Altman, Michael Imperiale, Eric Horvitz, Monica Dus, Raphael Townshend, Vicky Yao, Todd Treangen, Tessa Alexanian, Erika Szymanski, Jaime Yassif, Rafael Anta, Ariel B. Lindner, Markus Schmidt, James Diggans, Kevin M. Esvelt, Kutubuddin A. Molla, Ryan Phelan, Mengdi Wang, Felicia Wu, Daniela Matias de C. Bittencourt. (95 endorsers.)
• Condemning & Making Obsolete Biological Weapons. Andy Weber, Christine Parthemore, Josh Wentzel. (Tessa Alexanian and Piers Millett among the 108 endorsers.)
• The Importance of Redlines in the Life Sciences. David A. Relman. (Tessa Alexanian and Piers Millett among the 78 endorsers.)
• Risks from Mirror Life. (Tessa Alexanian and Piers Millett among the 95 endorsers.)
• Biotechnology for a Sustainable & Equitable Global Bioeconomy. Matthew Wook Chang, Rafael Anta, Daniela Matias de Carvalho Bittencourt, Rob Carlson, Natsai Audrey Chieza, Fernán Federici, Paul Freemont, Teklehaimanot Haileselassie, Jukka Kantola, Margaret Karembu, Faisal Khan, David S. Kong, Makiko Matsuo, Mary Maxon, Wataru Mizunashi, Jennifer C. Molloy, Bupe Mwambingu, Buhm Soon Park, Maria Mercedes Roca, Robert Speight, Kassahun Tesfaye, Chen Wu. (Tessa Alexanian among the 83 endorsers.)
• Letter to Our Relatives, Ancestors, and Future Generations: A Call to Establish Indigenous Biotechnology. WarīNkwī Flores, Maria Astolfi, Rolando Perez, Leon Elcock III, Janeth Bonilla, Steven Rhyans, David Kong. (Tessa Alexanian among the 68 endorsers.)
• Next Generation Leaders Entreaty on Access and Equity. Cibele Zolnier Sousa do Nascimento, Alicia Johnson, Emma Sebunya Kato, Justin R.J. Vigar, Rolando Perez, Cholpisit Ice Kiattisewee, Kutubuddin Molla. (Tessa Alexanian among the 60 endorsers.)

For more information, go to The Spirit of Asilomar website.

A lecture given at the 1975 Asilomar meeting. Image from MIT Libraries, via Science History Institute Magazine, “An Absolute Good?”.