Michael Montague

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Dr. Montague's research at the Archimedes Network is focused upon threat modeling of biotechnology, artificial intelligence, information hazard management, and weapon theory, with an emphasis upon deliberate use.

Prior to being at the Archimedes Network, Michael was a Senior Scholar at the Center for Health Security at Hopkins,and a Research Associate at the Future for Humanity Institute. Michael Montague received his bachelor degree in Biochemistry from the University of Dallas in 1997, and his PhD in Microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His 2005 dissertation title was "Functional Phylogeny of Protein Families". He then spent 8 years working at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville MD where he was involved in research that was foundational to the modern genetic engineering methodologies that are now collectively refereed to as "Synthetic Biology".

Publications (29)

(2024) "Quantum Biology Risks: A Threat Model to Inform Research and Development Funding."

(2023) "Towards a Grand Unified Threat Model of Biotechnology."

(2023) "Exploring the value of a global gene drive project registry."

(2022). "Feasibility of On-Site Verification."

(2022) "Gene drives: How do we foster innovation without damaging ecosystems?"

(2022). "The Need for a Tiered Registry for US Gene Drive Governance."

(2022) "A Closing Window of Opportunity for Gene Drive Governance in the United States."

(2021) "COVID‐19 and the gain of function debates: Improving biosafety measures requires a more precise definition of which experiments would raise safety concerns."

(2020) "The biosecurity benefits of genetic engineering attribution."

(2020) "Gene Drives: Pursuing Opportunities, Minimizing Risk"

(2020) "Recommendations for Improving National Nurse Preparedness for Pandemic Response: Early Lessons from COVID-19"

(2020) "2nd Annual Global Forum On Scientific Advances Important To The Biological & Toxin Weapons Convention"

(2020) "Microbial Forensics: Detection and Characterization in the Twenty-first Century. In 21st Century Prometheus"

(2019) "Strengthening security for gene synthesis: recommendations for governance."

(2017) "Genome-wide engineering of an infectious clone of herpes simplex virus type 1 using synthetic genomics assembly methods."

(2015) “Grand challenges in space synthetic biology”

(2015) "Bacterial genome reduction using the progressive clustering of deletions via yeast sexual cycling."

(2012) "The role of synthetic biology for in situ resource utilization (ISRU)"

(2012) "Synthetic Biology: Implications and Uses."

(2012) "A Type III restriction-modification system in Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri."

(2012) "Sequence analysis of a complete 1.66Mb Prochlorococcus marinus MED4 genome cloned in yeast.”

(2012) "Synthetic genomics: potential and limitations."

(2010) "Targeted Chromosomal Knockouts in Mycoplasma pneumoniae."

(2010) "Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome."

(2009) "The Evolution of RecD Outside of the RecBCD Complex."

(2008) "One-step assembly in yeast of 25 overlapping DNA fragments to form a complete synthetic Mycoplasma genitalium genome."

(2000) "Gene content phylogeny of herpesviruses."

(2002) "Mycoplasmas and the minimal genome concept."

(2000) "Hrs interacts with SNAP-25 and regulates Ca2+-dependent exocytosis."

(1997) "Restoration of ß-globin gene expression in mammalian cells by antisense oligonucleotides that modify the aberrant splicing patterns of thalassemic pre-mRNAs."