Engineering Biology (or Synthetic Biology / Genetic Engineering) is a family of technologies that aims to engineer living systems to create new features, functionalities, and materials. In the past several years initial scientific development has translated to new products in areas from medicine to sustainability, recently accelerated by emerging Artificial Intelligence techniques applied to biological data. The field has also attracted significant attention due to concerns around possible dual-use applications, fueled both by international competition and growing capabilities for open-source “bio hacking”. This talk will present current state-of-the-art in Engineering Biology, ongoing challenges in its regulation and biosecurity at an international level, as well as pragmatic discussion of technical/resource needs that may (or may not) pose a barrier to dual-use of this family of technologies.