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Synthetic Biology

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Often described as “designing organisms from scratch,” synthetic biologists are using molecular biology, computer science, and engineering principles to better understand the biological world and design useful products. Synthetic biology raises ethical questions around benefit and harms. More effective medicines, intelligent tumor-seeking bacteria, and cheap biofuels are just a few of the applications being promised today. While genetic engineering techniques developed in the 1970s are largely confined to moving genes from one organism to another, synthetic biology aims to write wholly new genetic recipes (and ingredients) that older techniques simply could not cook up.

From the Hastings Center

Bioethics Briefing Book

Synthetic Biology

By Michele S. Garfinkel, Drew Endy, Gerald L. Epstein, and Robert M. Friedman

Projects

Ethical Issues in Synthetic Biology

Toward Clearer Understanding and Better Policy Principal Investigators Gregory Kaebnick, Thomas H. Murray, and Erik Parens Funder

News

Ethical Issues in Synthetic Biology Explored at Center Meeting

Pairing genetic technology with computing and engineering techniques in what is known as synthetic biology makes it easier for researchers as well as biohackers to create and control genetic recipes. More effective medicines, intelligent tumor-seeking bacteria, and cheap bio-fuels are some of the hoped-for ap

News

Washington Briefings on Choice in Health Care and Synthetic Biology Feature Hastings Center Scholars

Hastings Center co-founder and President Emeritus Daniel Callahan was featured at a media briefing on consumer choice in health care sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  The briefing, which took place at the National Press Club in Washington on June 25, featured

Bioethics Forum

Taking Control of Biology

Gregory E. Kaebnick

News

PRESS RELEASE: New Science Commentary: Synthetic Biology Raises Important—yet Familiar—Ethical Issues

Hastings Center scholars warn against fragmenting bioethics into “subfields” that squander scarce resources September 11, 2008 (Garrison, NY) There is a critical need to examine the ethical implications of the new field of synthetic biology, but in an essay in the September 12 issue of Science, Hastings

News

Synthetic Biology Meeting at Hastings Center; International Experts Explore Ethical and Policy Issues

Ethical and Policy Issues of the Emerging Field Explored Imagine biological systems being manipulated to function like computers or factories so that they can generate lifesaving medical therapies or cheap biofuels—or weapons of terror. The prospects and perils of

Resources

Gregory E. Kaebnick, "Is the 'Synthetic Cell' about Life?," The Scientist 24, no.7 (2010): 27


Gregory E. Kaebnick, "Synthetic Biology, Analytical Ethics," The Hastings Center Report 40, no. 4 (2010).


Gregory E. Kaebnick, "Should Moral Objections to Synthetic Biology Affect Public Policy?," Nature Biotechnology 27, (2009): 1106 - 1108


Erik Parens, Josephine Johnston, and Jacob Moses, “Do We Need ‘Synthetic Bioethics’?,” Science 321, no. 5895 (2008): 1449.


Erik Parens, “Making Cells Like Computers,” Boston Globe, February 18, 2008.


ETC Group, Extreme Genetic Engineering: An Introduction to Synthetic Biology (Ottawa, ON: ETC Group, 2007).


Michele Garfinkel, Drew Endy, Gerald L. Epstein, and Robert M. Friedman, Synthetic Genomics: Options for Governance (Rockville, M.D.: J. Craig Venter Institute, 2007).


Denise Caruso, Synthetic Biology: An Overview and Recommendations for Anticipating and Addressing Emerging Risks (Washington DC, Center for American Progress, 2008).

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Synthetic Biology Project (Washington, DC).