By Ana Bernardo-Gancedo

Health is what underpins all societies. There is nothing and nobody to defend without it. This simple truth sits at the heart of the NIF’s strategy: without the health of our people, the rest of our defences are meaningless.

Biotechnology stands at the intersection of defence, security, and resilience. Defending the Alliance is about more than weapons – it’s about the health of those on the front lines and our ability to detect and counter engineered bio threats. While security means safeguarding the health of entire populations, resilience is built on our capacity to develop and manufacture essential drugs and technologies, and to move vital resources where and when they’re needed.

For the NIF, investing in biotech isn’t just about backing the latest scientific breakthroughs – it’s about ensuring the health of warfighters, the safety of societies, and the strength of our supply chains. In today’s world, the line between natural and engineered biological threats is blurring. Our ability to prepare, detect, and respond to these challenges is what keeps societies safe.

Biotech is a wide field, but its importance is clear: there’s nothing and nobody to defend if our citizens and warfighters aren’t healthy. That’s why NIF dedicates its focus to two critical areas: healthcare preparedness and supply chain security. Our aim is to ensure we’re ready for both naturally occurring diseases and engineered threats.

Healthcare Preparedness: Anticipate, Detect, Respond

Preparedness starts with data. By accelerating access to and drawing insights from new and existing sources – like proteomics and biosecurity data – we can identify and characterize pathogens faster. This rapid response is essential for designing and developing countermeasures that work when and where they’re needed most.

Our approach is practical: from data to care at home and the front line. Whether it’s better drugs, synthetic blood, stable medicine transport, or remote care, we invest in solutions that also make a real difference in the field.

Supply Chain Security: Building Resilience from the Ground Up

A resilient healthcare system depends on a secure supply chain. This means not just developing and manufacturing countermeasures but also ensuring the supply of critical molecules for fuels, chemicals, and food. By strengthening these links, we make our societies less vulnerable to disruption.

Portal: A Case Study in Biosecurity and Supply Chain Innovation

Portal is a clear example of the kind of paradigm-shifting solution NIF is looking for. It’s not just a product – it’s a strategic asset for the alliance. The company’s protein sequencing platform unlocks access to crucial data that was previously out of reach. This has the potential to revolutionize how we characterize disease targets and develop the right drugs for the right patients.

Portal’s decentralized, real-time data also makes biomanufacturing more agile and cost-effective. It enables earlier, smarter decisions from drug design through clinical trials and quality control.

In the words of Andrew Heron, CEO of Portal, “Making protein sequencing as fast and ubiquitous as genomic sequencing is today is essential for biosecurity. Nanopore protein sequencing lets us see what DNA can miss, directly detecting and characterising threats in real time, so responders can act sooner with targeted countermeasures.”

The NIF’s biotech priorities in mind, Portal ticks every box: it provides unique biodata, reduces costs, and enables rapid, decentralized detection. In practice, this means detecting, characterising, and responding to threats or diseases faster than ever before. At the same time, Portal can support both scaling out and scaling up production – strengthening supply chain resilience for the Alliance.

“To build true preparedness, we need routine, rapid protein sequencing at the point of need,” Heron adds. “It provides a direct readout of active biology for earlier warning, and it gives developers the data to design better drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics at speed.”

Looking Ahead: Health as the First Line of Defence

The NIF’s focus on biotech is about outstanding technology for the readiness, resilience, and the health of our societies. By investing in solutions like Portal, we’re building a future where we can anticipate threats, respond with speed, and protect what matters most. In the end, health is our greatest strategic asset. Without it, there’s nothing left to defend.