Lalitha’s research at CSER is in the area of bio-risk, with a particular emphasis on regulation and governance. She investigates risks – real or perceived – surrounding emerging biotechnologies such as synthetic biology. Before joining CSER, Lalitha worked within the University of Cambridge and Edinburgh’s Arsenic Biosensor Collaboration where she developed strategy to take this novel synthetic biology product from bench to field, focusing on the international regulatory landscape and Responsible Research and Innovation. Following this, she held a fellowship at King’s College London investigating the opportunities and challenges facing emerging biotechnologies seeking to tackle global health challenges. Lalitha’s PhD research, also at the University of Cambridge, used a combination of bioinformatic, next-generation sequencing and molecular biology tools to explore host-cell metabolic and microRNA changes following infection by the pathogenic parasite Toxoplasma gondii.
Lalitha is a current UKRI Policy Fellow, seconded part-time to the Arms Control and Disarmament Research Unit at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. She also sits on the UK Biosecurity Leadership Council, convened by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and is a Postdoctoral Affiliate at Jesus College.
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Synthetic biology regulation in Europe: containment, release and beyond
Paper by Lalitha Sundaram, James W Ajioka, Jennifer C Molloy
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Hazards with escalation potential: Governing the drivers of global and existential catastrophes
Report by Maxime Stauffer, Jenty Kirsch-Wood, Anne-Sophie Stevance, Lara Mani, Lalitha Sundaram, Sarah Dryhurst, Konrad Seifert
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CCCR 2022 - Day 2 Videos
Video by Robin Gorna, Julius Weitzdörfer, Lalitha Sundaram, Jochem Rietveld, Bryan Walsh
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Exploring Futures for the Science of Global Risk
Paper by SJ Beard, Nathaniel Cooke, Sarah Dryhurst, Mike Cassidy, Goodwin Gibbins, Georgiana Gilgallon, Ben Holt, Ida Josefiina, Luke Kemp, Aaron Tang, Julius Weitzdörfer, Paul Ingram, Lalitha Sundaram, Rick Davies
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Submission of Evidence to the UK Biosecurity Strategy Call for Evidence
Report by Tom Hobson, Lalitha Sundaram, David Aldridge, Alec Christie, Brett Edwards, Malcolm Dando, Silviu Petrovan, Lijun Shang, William Sutherland, Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Rebecca Smith
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Accumulating evidence using crowdsourcing and machine learning: a living bibliography about existential risk and global catastrophic risk
Peer-reviewed paper by Gorm Shackelford, Luke Kemp, Catherine Rhodes, Lalitha Sundaram, Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, SJ Beard, Haydn Belfield, Julius Weitzdörfer, Shahar Avin, Dag Sørebø, Elliot M. Jones, John B. Hume, David Price, David Pyle, Daniel Hurt, Theodore Stone, Harry Watkins, Lydia Collas, William Sutherland
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Informing management of lockdowns and a phased return to normality: a Solution Scan of non-pharmaceutical options to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission
Report by William Sutherland, David C. Aldridge, Philip Martin, Catherine Rhodes, Gorm Shackelford, SJ Beard, Andrew J. Bladon, Cameron Brick, Mark Burgman, Alec P. Christie, Lynn V. Dicks, Andrew P. Dobson, Harriet Downey, Fangyuan Hua, Amelia S.C. Hood, Alice C. Hughes, Rebecca M. Jarvis, Douglas MacFarlane, Anne-Christine Mupepele, William H. Morgan, Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Stefan J. Marciniak, Cassidy Nelson, Clarissa Rios Rojas, Katherine A. Sainsbury, Rebecca K. Smith, Lalitha Sundaram, Hannah Tankard, Nigel G. Taylor, Ann Thornton, John Watkins, Thomas B. White, Kate Willott, Silviu O. Petrovan, Haydn Belfield
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Point of View: Bioengineering horizon scan 2020
Peer-reviewed paper by Luke Kemp, Laura Adam, Christian R. Boehm, Rainer Breitling, Rocco Casagrande, Malcolm Dando, Appolinaire Djikeng, Nicholas Evans, Richard Hammond, Kelly Hills, Lauren Holt, Todd Kuiken, Alemka Markotić, Piers Millett, Johnathan A Napier, Cassidy Nelson, Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Anne Osbourn, Megan Palmer, Nicola J Patron, Edward Perello, Wibool Piyawattanametha, Vanessa Restrepo-Schild, Clarissa Rios Rojas, Catherine Rhodes, Anna Roessing, Deborah Scott, Philip Shapira, Christopher Simuntala, Robert DJ Smith, Lalitha Sundaram, Eriko Takano, Gwyn Uttmark, Bonnie Wintle, Nadia B Zahra, William Sutherland
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80 Questions for UK Biological Security
Paper by Luke Kemp, David C.Aldridge, Olaf Booy, Hilary Bower, Des Browne, Mark Burgmann, Austin Burt, Andrew A. Cunningham, Malcolm Dando, Jaimie T. A. Dick, Christopher Dye, Sam Weiss Evans, Belinda Gallardo, H. Charles J. Godfray, Ian Goodfellow, Simon Gubbins, Lauren Holt, Kate E. Jones, Hazem Kandil, Phillip Martin, Mark McCaughan, Caitríona McLeish, Thomas Meany, Kathryn Millett, Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Nicola J. Patron, Catherine Rhodes, Helen E. Roy, Gorm Shackelford, Derek Smith, Nicola Spence, Helene Steiner, Lalitha Sundaram, Silja Voeneky, John R. Walker, Harry Watkins, Simon Whitby, James Wood, William Sutherland