Reengineering Life

Vaccines Won’t Be the Only Priority as Biden’s Science Team Steps Up

Experts Eric Lander and Alondra Nelson will carry out an agenda focused on social justice and equality

Reengineering Life is a column from Future Human about the ways humans are using biology to reprogram our bodies and the world around us.

At a press conference on January 16, four days before his inauguration, incoming President Joe Biden announced the nomination of several members of his White House science team. Biden gave the top job of science adviser to geneticist and mathematician Eric Lander, PhD, and for the first time in history elevated the position to the president’s Cabinet.

The message was clear: Science will take a front seat in the Biden administration.

Lander will serve as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), replacing meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier, PhD, who didn’t take office until two years into the Trump administration. It was the longest time a modern president had gone without filling the role since at least 1976, when Congress established the OSTP. The office advises the president on science and technology issues and coordinates related initiatives across government…