Synthetic Biology and Biological Diversity Conservation Potential Positives and Negatives Impacts (original) (raw)
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Synthetic Biology: new and emerging issues
The synthetic biology is the application of science, technology and engineering to facilitate and accelerate the design and engineer (manufacture and or modification) biologically based parts or genetic materials, novel devices and systems in living organism to alter living or non-living materials. (European Commission, 2014). Synthetic biology includes the “de novo” synthesis of genetic material and an engineering-based approach to develop components, organisms and products; and, builds on modern biotechnology methodologies and techniques such as high throughput DNA technologies and bioinformatics. Synthetic biology aims to design and engineer biologically based parts, novel devices and systems as well as redesigning existing, natural biological systems (RAE, 2009).
2008
This review was commissioned by a working group of the Bioscience for Society Strategy (BSS) Panel of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). BBSRC is not responsible for the views expressed in the report or the accuracy of its content. These are solely the responsibility of the authors.
Synthetic biology - putting engineering into biology
Bioinformatics/computer Applications in The Biosciences, 2006
Synthetic biology is interpreted as the engineering-driven building of increasingly complex biological entities for novel applications. Encouraged by progress in the design of artificial gene networks, de novo DNA synthesis and protein engineering, we review the case for this emerging discipline. Key aspects of an engineering approach are purpose-orientation, deep insight into the underlying scientific principles, a hierarchy of abstraction including suitable interfaces between and within the levels of the hierarchy, standardization, and the separation of design and fabrication. Synthetic biology investigates possibilities to implement these requirements into the process of engineering biological systems. This is illustrated on the DNA level by the implementation of engineering-inspired artificial operations such as toggle switching, oscillating, or production of spatial patterns. On the protein level, the functionally self-contained domain structure of a number of proteins suggests possibilities for essentially Lego-like recombination which can be exploited for reprogramming DNA binding domain specificities or signaling pathways. Alternatively, computational design emerges to rationally reprogram enzyme function. Finally, the increasing facility of de novo DNA synthesis -synthetic biology's system fabrication process -supplies the possibility to implement novel designs for ever more complex systems. Some of these elements have merged to realize the first tangible synthetic biology applications in the area of manufacturing of pharmaceutical compounds.
Editorial introduction for the Synthetic Biology thematic issue
New Biotechnology, 2014
Synthetic biology strives to develop organisms, enzymes, and processes that do not occur naturally to solve specific biotechnological problems. Often this requires genetic engineering to change a natural process, or to combine genes from different sources to create new ones. This volume includes examples not only of these traditional approaches, but also illustrates how some problems can be solved chemically or biochemically without genetic manipulation. Topics covered therefore range from exploitation of genomic or gene regulation data gleaned from systems biology to the production of nanoparticles at one extreme of scale to biodiesel to replace our dependence upon fossil fuels at the opposite extreme. This introduction sets current synthetic biology within the context of the European regulatory framework within which we must operate. Attention is also drawn to the emerging language that describes it.
Brief for GSDR 2015 The promise of synthetic biology for sustainable development
2015
Synthetic biology builds on the achievements and uses the techniques of genetic engineering, which involves the alteration of an organism’s genetic material using biotechnology. Synthetic biology has been defined as “the design and construction of new biological parts, devices, and systems, and the re-design of existing, natural biological systems for useful purposes” (Nature). It has also been described as “the construction of customized biological systems to perform new and improved functions, through the application of principles from engineering and chemical synthesis” (ter Meulen, 2014). Synthetic biology represents the convergence of technologies from the life sciences, such as DNA recombination, with other fields like engineering, computational technology and nanotechnology (OECD, 2014).