Ajay Karpur is a senior research software engineer at RAND, working with the Meselson Center. He's hoping to start tweeting again soon, at @ajaykarpur.
Joining as a guest co-host on this episode was Janvi Ahuja, who is a PhD student in computational biology at Oxford University, and part of the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security ‘Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity’ program. She's tweeting at @jn_ahuja.
In our conversation, we discuss:
- What is metagenomic sequencing, and why could it matter so much for it to become affordable and ubiquitous?
- How and why can nonprofits help positive technologies become more accessible?
- How emerging biotech can help the world respond better to the next emerging (potential) pandemic
- Refuges against biological threats
- Analogies between fire protection and pathogen protection through monitoring and cleaner air
- Career advice for entering biosecurity, especially with an engineering background.
You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/karpur
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