John T. (J.T.) O’Brien, MS, is the Research Associate for the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense and is currently pursuing his DPhil in Biology at the University of Oxford. He is a biodefense professional with a background in bioengineering and emerging infectious diseases. Prior to joining the Commission, he conducted research on the biosecurity implications of artificial intelligence with the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. Before that, he worked at the Nuclear Threat Initiative where he supported work on the Global Health Security Index as a contributing author. He previously conducted laboratory research at George Mason University’s National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases on novel detection methods for Zika, Chikungunya, Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis, and Rift Valley Fever viruses. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering, with a concentration in Biomedical Signals & Systems, from George Mason University and a Master of Science in Biohazardous Threat Agents and Emerging Infectious Diseases from Georgetown University. 


JT's project is focused on the origins of virus and aims to use mathematical models to simulate phylodynamics of early viral evolution that could reveal insights about how viruses first emerged on Earth. There are several hypotheses for the origin of viruses including the escape, reduction, virus-first, chimeric, and symbiogenic hypotheses. However, it is not known which of these evolutionary pathways is most likely to have occurred first or whether multiple occurred at the same time. The project will model different scenarios of how viruses could have emerged and explore which may be most likely given a set of assumptions. These models can then be used to infer insights about attribution methods of biological agents, to explore likely pathways for virus emergence on other celestial bodies in the solar system, and how virus evolutionary dynamics might change in a reduced gravity environment.