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The Operation Outbreak team returned to Trieste, Italy earlier this month to facilitate the latest iteration of its dynamic tabletop exercise on biosecurity, as part of the Training Course on Pathogen Detection and Biosecurity co-organized by the United Nations Biological Weapons Convention Implementation Support Unit and the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
From May 4-8, the program brought together a cohort of 16 early- and mid-career scientists from four continents, with backgrounds in microbiology, virology, zoology, and other fields related to biosecurity. Over the five-day course, participants attended lectures and received practical training on a range of biosecurity topics, including public engagement, policymaking, biosafety, bioinformatics, and molecular detection tools (qRT-PCR, LAMP).
An international panel of experts—representing the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, the World Health Organization, and laboratories across Europe and Asia—delivered lectures and led technical sessions throughout the week.
On the final day of the training, Operation Outbreak’s Kian Sani and Sellers Hill led an experiential, scenario-based tabletop exercise that applied course themes by tasking participants with a simulated outbreak response in a fictional middle-income nation. The exercise leveraged Operation Outbreak’s Bluetooth-based simulation technology to generate real-time epidemiological data, which participants were challenged to interpret and act on as the scenario unfolded in the room.
The May course marked Operation Outbreak’s third collaboration with ICGEB and the UN BWC Implementation Support Unit in under six months, following sessions in Cape Town in December 2025 and Trieste in February 2026. The recurring engagement reflects a growing appetite among biosecurity practitioners and policymakers for simulation-based training—and Operation Outbreak's expanding role at the intersection of science education and global biosecurity, where experiential learning is helping a new generation of scientists test response strategies, strengthen cross-border collaboration, and build preparedness for emerging biological threats.
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Media Contact:
Sellers Hill
+1 (857) 858-5798
sellers@operationoutbreak.org
www.operationoutbreak.org
About Operation Outbreak, Inc.
Operation Outbreak is a nonprofit organization that uses experiential learning and outbreak simulations to build practical outbreak preparedness skills among students, professionals, and policymakers worldwide.
