Project plan for ethics in iGEM and synthetic biology

Ethics is a generally underappreciated but rather important element in science and technology. Discussing ethics behind a scientific project, starting from the initial phase, can increase productivity and helps team members to value each other better by creating a working atmosphere in which everyone has a good understanding of why you are doing this research, what can be done with it, what the project is actually about and what are its applications, what kind of purpose is being pursued, and whom the project and project results might effect.

After a good discussion with Steven Flipse, last year’s iGEM team TUDelft member responsible for the ethics part of the project, I gained interesting insides in approaches and important matter to take into consideration when evaluating the ethics behind the project. It became clear that this takes time and should be done throughout the project, in which the initial phase as well as the reflection is very important for a complete story. To make it more clearly, I would like to pursue the following model:

1. IDEA
An idea is generally based on knowledge and creativity, but is also dependent on other input. The circumstances under which the idea came to be, but maybe more important, the purpose and the effects of the project should be discussed. (Literature: constructive technology assessment)

2. METHOD
During the experiments visions concerning the project will change based on e.g. new findings in literature. The value and applications as well as the research itself might change during the project. Moreover, it is important to notion what we are actually working on and reflect this throughout the project. (Literature: user/producer interaction)

3. OUTCOME
After reflecting the project, an important issue is to inform the public. What usually is ignored by scientists is something we might want to focus on: informing the “unknowing” public, for example by attracting local papers and student/university magazines and explaining in a more easy format the stuff we did, the purpose, application and the effects on society. (Literature: value sensitive design)

Summarizing, from an ethical perspective it is important to consider the “what, why and for whom” behind our project and discuss it in different points of time. This approach will be evaluated by making use of questionnaires which will be discussed individually, discussions concerning specific topics in the group, and by approaching media to inform the public.

To get a better ethical grip on synthetic biology in general, one suggestion is to either cooperate with other iGEM teams or use members of other (Dutch) teams to obtain more manpower and different opinions concerning synthetic biology.

Notion: this is just a rough template on what to expect from ethics this year. I still have to think on this subject, work out a project plan and look up more details from other iGEM teams and their involvement in ethics. But hopefully you now have some idea of what to expect.

Macro ethics

Since the marriage between technologies in molecular and cellular biology together with genetics and proteomics gave life to a new phenomenon called synthetic biology, a lot of ethical questions were raised. Although the definition of synthetic biology is not yet clear and future implications are yet uncertain, research in the field of synthetic biology is at its peak. Different articles claim that synthetic biology is the answer to curing cancer and the production of bio-fuel, and several leading universities assembled specific departments for this field of research. An OpenWetware created by the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, gives free access to a large registry of BioBricks: basic “ready to use” biological machinery components. The most important resource for these BioBricks comes from the yearly iGEM (international genetically engineered machine) competition, in which teams of students can compete on building the best microorganism machine by combining, describing, implementing and/or designing these biological standardized parts.
There is a lot of literature on ethical issues in synthetic biology. Important things that should be addressed are:

• What is synthetic biology?
• Important and well described ethical issues:
  • Bio safety (health/environment)
  • Bio security (biological weapons)
  • Naturalness/Artificialness (ethical considerations)
  • Intellectual property rights (open source, commercialization, globalization)
• Responsibility
• Transparency
• Media involvement
• Public involvement
• Value sensitive design

These macro ethical concerns address synthetic biology in general as well as the iGEM competition specifically. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of synthetic biology in iGEM could be achieved by approaching many people in this particular field of science (mostly iGEM participants) to see their view on this matter. At least cooperation with Groningen is certain.

The micro ethics in our own project group can be approached by the Idea-Method-Outcome system. One of the starting points there will be our discussion on the criteria during the brainstorming.

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