About
We aim to increase the amount of impactful biosecurity work that is done in the long term. We do this by helping people learn about, work on, and transition into a career in biosecurity. For more on why we think it’s important to work on biosecurity, see this post on our blog.
Our Story
Oxford Biosecurity Group began in September 2023. The three of us were going to work on biosecurity projects alongside our graduate degrees, and we felt that having additional people would be valuable both for direct impact and for helping others further their biosecurity skills and experience.
After running our initial pilot project cycle in October-December 2023, we were positively overwhelmed by the level of interest and positive feedback. We decided to run future project cycles and to focus on connecting promising individuals with opportunities to engage in impactful biosecurity research.
Projects
We help people gain practical experience by running part-time remote research projects in biosecurity and the AI-biology intersection that people from any country can take part in. We focus primarily on the policy and technology aspects of biosecurity, projects are often in collaboration with organisations.
We expect that most direct project impact is likely to come from providing support and structure for project leads to (i) do impactful work with the help of researchers or (ii) trialing project ideas which they may later spin out, as well as by (iii) increasing the capacity of other organisations, which allows them to do additional valuable work sooner. We therefore look for projects to fit into at least one of these categories.
For more details about the projects we run, see here.
Our Team
Lin Bowker-Lonnecker
Lin has a background in engineering and economics, and she is currently doing a part-time PhD at Oxford. Her project primarily focuses on the implementation of genomics technologies for different conditions (both chronic and infectious diseases), through looking at people’s preferences and their cost-effectiveness. In the past, she was an engineer at a lung function testing startup, was in charge of evaluation at a pandemic prevention advocacy organisation, and did a research fellowship evaluating potential high-impact health security charities.
In her spare time, Lin enjoys running, bouldering, and learning about random things.
Executive Director
Sofya Lebedeva
Sofya has a background in molecular biology and immunology. She is currently a PhD student at Oxford University. Her project at the Ansari Lab focuses on host-pathogen interactions in the hepatitis c virus, using bioinformatics, statistics and genomics to elucidate new trends. She is also the co-founder of the non-profit ARMoR - Alliance for Reducing Microbial Resistance. This organisation focuses on supporting sustainable access & development of antimicrobials to combat antimicrobial resistance.
In her spare time, Sofya enjoys callisthenics, weightlifting and visual art. She is also a certified yoga teacher.
Director of Research
Conrad Kunadu
Conrad is a graduate student studying for the MPhil in International Relations at Trinity College, Oxford. His research focuses on the implications of dual-use technologies on great power strategy with a focus on bioweapons. Formerly, he was a Biosecurity Research Fellow taking part in the Existential Risk Alliance Fellowship. Conrad previously worked in operations at a startup and project management at non-profits. Conrad is ultimately excited about launching impactful biosecurity projects.
In his spare time, Conrad loves music, DJing, weightlifting and food. He loves learning and has interests ranging from philosophy to physics.
Director of Operations