Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
new genes, gene circuits,
genomes,
and organisms with traits vastly different
from anything invented by nature during life's 3.5 billion years on earth.
Currently, synthetic biology focuses mainly on single-celled organisms
(bacteria), but its vision for the future encompasses multicelled organisms.
stanford University synbiologist Drew endy claims, “There is no technical
barrier to synthesizing plants and animals, it will happen as soon as anyone
pays for it” (quoted in eTC Group 2007, 7). finally, synthetic biology's in-
tegration of designer genes into specially prepared genomes is much more
exacting than gene transfer via genetic engineering, where the number and
location(s) of foreign gene(s) in the host genome are difficult to control.
What about the underlying objectives of the two technologies; do they
also differ? Genetic engineers work to soften irritating points of contact be-
tween us and nature. in a sense, they are cocreators with nature. They take
what has evolved naturally and add to it or subtract from it in tiny ways at
strategic points, leaving the core of the original life form intact. By con-
trast, synbiologists seek to create a new “nature” by bringing entirely new
organism into existence.
Despite this difference between the objectives of the two technologies,
that is, to cocreate with nature versus to create
de novo,
genetic engineers and
synbiologists are rarely two separate groups of persons. synthetic biology
depends upon laboratory techniques in the genetic engineer's toolkit. The
interdisciplinary nature of synthetic biology means that molecular biolo-
gists and geneticists may team with electrical engineers and computer sci-
entists with a “lego set components” approach to creating new life forms.
finally, synthetic biology encourages a nonconventional view of bio-
logical nature. ethicists Joachim Boldt and oliver müller (2008, 387-88)
note, “seen from the perspective of synthetic biology, nature is a blank
space to be filled with whatever we wish.”
4
They suggest that metaphors
used in synthetic biology to describe DnA segments, combinations of seg-
ments, and new life forms may gradually erode society's respect for na-
ture's creations. They point to metaphors such as Biobrick, legobrick,
switch, biological part, software, circuit, network, hardware, chassis, and
cellular factory, warning that long-term and widespread use of such meta-
phors may discourage valuing of nature's life forms for their own sake.
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