This summer I worked at Gryphon Scientific, a biological research and consulting firm. The projects I worked on were for federal agencies and related to biosecurity and biological defense. Working at Gryphon during the pandemic was fascinating as many of the questions and considerations that are commonly discussed around COVID are relevant to much of Gryphon’s day-to-day work. I worked on three projects of the summer. My first project involved considerations of surge testing for a BSL-3 or higher level agent. My second project was about consideration of the misuse of flu strains with pandemic potential that lack federal regulations for handling. The third project I worked on was one evaluating the possibility of accessing synthetic DNA that could be used maliciously. The flu project was one I was part of from its beginning, allowing me to help determine the scope of the project and systems to go about doing the work. Interning at Gryphon provided me with the incredible opportunity to work with bench-trained scientists and apply the scientific knowledge I’ve gained to real issues that governments are concerned about!