Trending Now
We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
Why life sciences are critical to national security
Listen: What if the next virus isn’t natural, but deliberately engineered and used as a weapon? As geopolitical tensions rise and biological threats become more complex, health security and life sciences are emerging as critical pillars of national defense.
In the premiere episode of “The Ripple Effect: Investing in Life Sciences”, host Dan Riskin is joined by two leading voices at the intersection of biotechnology and defense, Dawn Meyerriecks, former CIA Deputy Director for Science and Technology and current member of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, and Jason Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks. Together, they explore the dual-use nature of biotechnology and the urgent need for international oversight, genetic attribution standards, and robust viral surveillance. From pandemic preparedness and fragile supply chains to AI-driven lab automation and airport biosurveillance, their conversation highlights how life science innovation strengthens national resilience and strategic defense.
This timely conversation follows the June 25th, 2025 Hague Summit Declaration, where NATO allies pledged to invest 5% of GDP in defense by 2035—including up to 1.5% on resilience and innovation to safeguard critical infrastructure, civil preparedness, networks, and the defense industrial base. This limited series, produced by GZERO’s Blue Circle Studios in partnership with Novartis, examines how life science innovation plays a vital role in fulfilling that commitment.
Graphic Truth: National Institutes for Health funding in peril
The Trump administration wants to slash the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US’ main medical research institution, by 40% for the next fiscal year.
The move would bring funding levels back to those of the early 1990s, before a huge post-Cold War push to increase non-military R&D nearly doubled the NIH budget.
The current, Trump-appointed NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya reaffirmed his agency’s commitment to addressing “the health needs of all Americans” before the senate on Tuesday. At the same time, more than 300 current and recently terminated NIH employees have accused the director of suspending federal grant funding for ideological reasons.
Here’s a look at how Trump’s proposed cuts stack up against NIH funding over the past 30 years.
The logo for Isomorphic Labs is displayed on a tablet in this illustration.
Meet Isomorphic Labs, the Google spinoff that aims to cure you
In 2024, Demis Hassabis won a Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work in predicting protein structures through his company, Isomorphic Labs. The lab, which broke off from Google's DeepMind in 2021, raised $600 million from investors in a new funding round led by Thrive Capital on Monday. The company did not disclose a valuation.
Isomorphic uses artificial intelligence to discover new drugs through its AlphaFold technology, which was at the center of Hassabis’s Nobel win last year. Ultimately, Hassabis wants to do something that’s not exactly simple: He’s vowed to “solve all disease with the help of AI.”
Isomorphic is already working with big pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly and Novartis, inking deals with the two drugmakers last year worth $3 billion. It plans to use the new money to improve its AI tools and to move its drugs toward clinical testing.Tulsi Gabbard hugs President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 12, 2025.
Gabbard and RFK Jr. confirmed by US Senate
On Thursday, the Senate voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary. The vote also went along party lines, 52-48, with McConnell also voting with Democrats against Kennedy.
RFK Jr., like Gabbard, has set off alarm bells. Ian Bremmer, founder and president of Eurasia Group, says Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement is “set to shake up health policy” in the US. MAHA, says Bremmer, is “a worldview that blends concerns about corporate influence on healthcare with skepticism towards mainstream medicine.” It’s also made up, notes Bremmer, of wellness culture, vaccine hesitancy, alternative medicine, and deep state conspiracy – and it crosses ideological divides. It is, in a word, messy, and will almost certainly do what its proponents promise: upset the status quo on health policy in the US.Graphic Truth: How much booze do Americans and Canadians drink?
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is sounding the alarm that drinking alcohol is linked to cancer, and he’s calling for a rethink on the federal government’s guideline for how much alcohol is safe to drink. Right now, US government guidelines recommend that men consume no more than two drinks per day, and women have no more than one.
His call comes at the right time for Dry January when many choose to forego alcohol and focus on New Year’s resolutions. But the effort comes at the wrong time for the restaurant industry, which depends on alcohol sales to make a profit, especially as food and labor costs rise, and as inflation-weary diners are cutting back on eating out.
But consumers may already be heeding his warning. According to the WHO and the CIA’s Factbook, both Canadians and Americans have cut back on their drinking since booze consumption surged during the pandemic.
Vice President Kamala Harris waves to members of the media as she boards Air Force Two at Sky Harbor in Phoenix on Oct. 11, 2024.
Harris challenges Trump on his health: “Your turn”
Vice President Kamala Harris released her medical records this weekend, confirming she is in “excellent health” and “possesses the physical and mental resiliency” necessary for the presidency. Harris then accused Republican rival Donald Trump of withholding his records, claiming he “doesn’t want the American people to see whether or not he’s fit” for office.
Critics have raised concerns over Trump’s mental health – citing erratic statements at campaign rallies – and ability to serve a full term, but his campaign quickly pushed back on Harris’ challenge, quoting Trump’s doctor as saying he’s in “perfect and excellent health.” They also took aim at Harris, claiming she “does not have the stamina” to match Trump’s “busy and active campaign schedule.” Still, Trump has not released his full medical record.
Harris’ campaign reportedly hopes the release of her health information will also contrast with Trump’s comparative lack of transparency. While the vice president is ahead in national polls, battleground states are still too close to call, and her campaign is looking for any edge it can find – including a doctor’s note.A doctor checks the progress of a patient with tuberculosis at the Beijing Chest Hospital March 31, 2009. Health officials gathered in Beijing on Wednesday warned against deadly drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis, which are spreading fastest in developing countries that lack the infrastructure to tackle the disease.
Please cough for the AI
What if an artificial intelligence stored on your phone could listen and hear how sick you are? Google is training a bioacoustic AI model called Health Acoustic Representations with 300 million snippets of audio collected from around the world — of people sneezing, coughing, and breathing. The goal? To spot tuberculosis early and treat it.
A whopping 1.3 million people died of tuberculosis in 2022 alone, according to the World Health Organization, and 10.6 million fell ill with the disease. “TB is a treatable disease, but every year millions of cases go undiagnosed — often because people don’t have convenient access to healthcare services,” Google’s Shravya Shetty wrote in a blog post. “Improving diagnosis is critical to eradicating TB, and AI can play an important role in improving detection and helping make care more accessible and affordable for people around the world.”
Google is focused first on preventing tuberculosis in India and is partnering with an Indian company called Salcit Technologies, whose own AI app Swaasa is being used by healthcare providers on the subcontinent. Swaasa will integrate Google’s model to improve its own detection of the disease.
Patient has an eye test at Venice Family Clinic in Venice, California, June 25, 2009.
Your new insurance advocate is AI
Health insurers are routinely using artificial intelligence and algorithms to evaluate insurance claims, but now the tables have turned. Doctors are increasingly turning to generative AI to write appeals for prior authorizations and to fight insurance denials.
A survey from the American Medical Association found doctors and their staff spend an average of 12 hours a week dealing with such denials, which insurance companies routinely issue, even in serious cases including cancer and HIV/AIDS care. Now, with the help of HIPAA-compliant apps like Doximity GPT, physicians can use the power of AI to generate persuasive reply letters, citing all the relevant medical research they need, in minutes.
One physician even told the New York Times that he tells the bot to make his letters four times longer: “If you’re going to put all kinds of barriers up for my patients, then when I fire back, I’m going to make it very time-consuming.”
So the next time you find yourself annoyed by a glitchy AI chatbot customer service, just remember, AI might help you get lifesaving drugs one day.