Team:TU Munich/EthicsAndBiosafety
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One of the biggest issues in contemporary literature is the fear of bioterrorism emerging from synthetic organisms. Since the synthetic biology community is carried by an open source mentality, knowledge and techniques to create harmful organisms are widely accessible. Just recently a reporter from The Guardian could order genomic parts of the smallpox virus. The CIA raises the fear that “engineered biological agents could be worse than any disease known to man” (CIA 2003). But even in the borders of known diseases, a certain caution is needed: for example researchers already managed to reconstruct the deadly Spanish Flu virus from 1918, which is estimated to have killed more people than the first world war, reviving this virus and setting it free would lead to a development described by Craig Venter as “the first Jurassic Park scenario” (Balmer 2008). It is even feared that the widely spread Do-it-yourself mentality in the field might lead to something called “biohacking”: Copying and assembling parts and manipulating organisms for the sake of creating something dangerous just to prove you can do it. | One of the biggest issues in contemporary literature is the fear of bioterrorism emerging from synthetic organisms. Since the synthetic biology community is carried by an open source mentality, knowledge and techniques to create harmful organisms are widely accessible. Just recently a reporter from The Guardian could order genomic parts of the smallpox virus. The CIA raises the fear that “engineered biological agents could be worse than any disease known to man” (CIA 2003). But even in the borders of known diseases, a certain caution is needed: for example researchers already managed to reconstruct the deadly Spanish Flu virus from 1918, which is estimated to have killed more people than the first world war, reviving this virus and setting it free would lead to a development described by Craig Venter as “the first Jurassic Park scenario” (Balmer 2008). It is even feared that the widely spread Do-it-yourself mentality in the field might lead to something called “biohacking”: Copying and assembling parts and manipulating organisms for the sake of creating something dangerous just to prove you can do it. | ||
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- | Those are dangers which should be neither under- nor overestimated. It took years, a whole lab of very skilled scientists and an awful lot of money for Craig Venter to copy the first organism artificially and it is not likely that bioterrorists will achieve the same even with something as simple as a virus in short time frames. Scientists working on harmful pathogens should be forced to obey high international safety standards to make sure that the risk to themeselves and the surrounding population is minimized. Most likely illnesses from uncharted regions and threats from zoonosis followed by disease invasion are a much higher risk than new assembled pathogens created using synthetic biology. | + | Those are dangers which should be neither under- nor overestimated. It took years, a whole lab of very skilled scientists and an awful lot of money for Craig Venter to copy the first organism artificially and it is not likely that bioterrorists will achieve the same even with something as simple as a virus in short time frames. Scientists working on harmful pathogens should be forced to obey high international safety standards to make sure that the risk to themeselves and the surrounding population is minimized. Most likely illnesses from uncharted regions and threats from zoonosis followed by disease invasion are a much higher risk than new assembled pathogens created using synthetic biology. Nevertheless many governments are starting to realize the promises originating from synthetic biology. For most politicians it is obvious that an emerging field with thousands of stakeholders can not be controlled anymore by a gentleman's agreement like it took place between the pioneers of genetic engineering in Asilomar 1975. Instead panels of experts were created to keep track on the field and to give advice to decision makers. In Europe the expert from the European commission releases an report on the field every few years, whereas the newly reconstituted US Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is the central advisory board in the US. Transnational research groups emerged in the field of humanities like SYNBIOSAFE to investigate recent developments of synthetic biology from an ethical standpoint. Like in many other fields companies already anticipate governmental regulations by introducing a self.control like it happened for gene synthesis companies, in order to prevent unauthorized orders of harmful genes. |
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Another issue which is currently discussed is the unintended release of synthetically created organisms, which is similar to the discussion of genetically modified organisms in general. It is possible that synthetic organisms leave the lab, replicate, evolve and transfer genes to other organisms in the environment. However experts from the European commission point out that the problem is not different compared to classically genetic engineered organisms which found their way on some acres already. Therefore current legislation does not need to be changed for synthetic biological research, the ethical problems remain the same and were already discussed in detail elsewhere. Synthetic biological approaches might even be suitable to reduce the life span of modified organisms in the environment and genetic “watermarks”, which were implemented in the first synthetic cell by Craig Venter, could be used to identify the origin of released organisms, adding more security or at least the possibility to backtrack. | Another issue which is currently discussed is the unintended release of synthetically created organisms, which is similar to the discussion of genetically modified organisms in general. It is possible that synthetic organisms leave the lab, replicate, evolve and transfer genes to other organisms in the environment. However experts from the European commission point out that the problem is not different compared to classically genetic engineered organisms which found their way on some acres already. Therefore current legislation does not need to be changed for synthetic biological research, the ethical problems remain the same and were already discussed in detail elsewhere. Synthetic biological approaches might even be suitable to reduce the life span of modified organisms in the environment and genetic “watermarks”, which were implemented in the first synthetic cell by Craig Venter, could be used to identify the origin of released organisms, adding more security or at least the possibility to backtrack. | ||
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*Balmer A., Martin P., 2008, Synthetic Biology: Social and Ethical Challenges, Institute for Science and Society, University of Nottingham. http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/organisation/policies/reviews/scientific-areas/0806-synthetic-biology.aspx<br> | *Balmer A., Martin P., 2008, Synthetic Biology: Social and Ethical Challenges, Institute for Science and Society, University of Nottingham. http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/organisation/policies/reviews/scientific-areas/0806-synthetic-biology.aspx<br> | ||
*Central Intelligence Agency (2003) The Darker Bioweapons Future prepared by Office of Transnational Issues available here: http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/bw1103.pdf | *Central Intelligence Agency (2003) The Darker Bioweapons Future prepared by Office of Transnational Issues available here: http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/bw1103.pdf | ||
+ | *http://www.synbiosafe.eu/<br> | ||
+ | *http://www.bioethics.gov/<br> | ||
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Revision as of 20:52, 25 October 2010
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Ethical concerns in Synthetic BiologySynthetic biology is a new chapter in biological sciences which comprises advances in different fields such as molecular biology, engineering, computer sciences and organic chemistry to create new biological systems which do not exist in nature. Therefore it can be seen as the final transformation of biology from a describing science to a designing technology.
Synthetic biology is expected to provide huge benefits to society, going from detecting and curing diseases, fabrication of biodegradable plastics to the promise to produce CO2 neutral fuel. But next to expectations, synthetic biology raises ethical questions such as concerns about biosecurity or to what extend man is legitimatized to manipulate nature. Some of those aspects will be discussed in the following. However, it has to be noted that by now many applications of synthetic biology and therefore its ethical implications are more or less just plans and intellectual games so far.
Cellular Network versus Technical CircuitIn our iGEM project we attempt to create logic gates based on RNA molecules and eventually implement these in living cells. As we applied principles known from computer science to biological molecules, the idea of logic gates itself is obviously not very new and our RNA circuits will not reach the complexity of electronic devices due to difficulties in handling biomolecules.
Therefore our network of RNA switches has one big problem compared to an electronic device: It cannot be manufactured as precisely as it is possible to make a waver using lithographic techniques, simply because the parts are not fixed in space. Although the characteristics of RNA make it easier to construct logic gates compared to biomolecular switches used so far, it is still way more complicated than using a lithographic template to precisely etch every transistor where it should be.
Technical Circuit versus Cellular networkThe other potential advantage of utilizing logic circuits in biological surrounding is the main force behind progress: Evolution. As computers are not a subject of replication, mutation and selection, this principle is not really contrivable with electronic circuits, so it is an interesting question what will happen to our RNA-based devices. It would be a big advantage of biological circuits if they could be optimized by directed evolution approaches. Thus it might be possible to let nature design our logic circuits by mutation and selection, and relieve the “wiring diagram” from limitation of human creativity. One could imagine that once the basic logic gates are established in cells, you just have to select for solving a certain problem in a typical directed evolution approach: either solve it, or perish! Those cells have then optimized their circuits by means of replication and evolution, a thing impossible for a classical computer.
SafetySo to sum it up, beside possible ethical controversity which does not only apply for our artificial network but for all work done with genetically modified organisms, all our parts should not represent a danger to individuals or the environment. We only used derivatives of E. coli K12 cells, which contain gene deletions to reduce the competitive capacity of the cells and avoid survival outside the laboratory. We worked under biosafety containment level 1 and all materials being in contact with living cells were autoclaved before disposal.
References
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