Engineering Biology

Introduction

Since the marriage between technologies in molecular and cellular biology together with genetic engineering 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.

Frameworks

There is a lot of literature on ethical issues in synthetic biology. A road map to illustrate these main concerns is shown in Figure 1. This road map (based on a paper of [http://www.synbioproject.org/library/publications/archive/synbio3/.com Parens, 2009]) is generally applicable for emerging technologies, but is currently designed to focus on synthetic biology. The ethical concerns that are mainly addressed in literature are "physical harms" and concerns gained by researchers "closest to action" in synthetic biology. The first concerns on bio-safety and bio-security, where the latter involves matters such as intellectual property rights and transparency.

Unfortunately the scientific community lacks an appropriate attitude towards themselves and the rest of the world. An undervaluated but nevertheless important subject in synthetic biology is the fact that we might change the perception of life when we try to (re)engineer life or even try to create it from scratch (Craig Venter's [http://www.pnas.org/content/103/2/425.abstract minimal genome project]). The reductionist approach (a method of understanding complex systems by analyzing the subsystems that it is composed of) has brought a lot of benefits in understanding physics and chemistry, and has definitely helped in understanding biological systems. But now we have come to the point that we are designing living systems. Some even believe we are at the brink of defining and even creating life. The consequences of this progression should be described and discussed elaborately.

Parens et al. also describes a framework that distinguishes two groups responding differently to questions concerning physical harms. The pro-actionary people think more of the benefits of the research than its possible implications. The pre-cautionary community are concerned about safety and security instead of rather thinking about the opportunities. As it comes to regulation and policies, the enthusiasts would keep the authority to themselves, whereas the critics would rahter see external regulation on safety and security issues.

Ethical concerns

The concerns in synthetic biology that typically appear in literature include bio-safety, bio-security, transparency and intellectual property rights. Topics concerning the attitude towards life, reductionism and public involvement that are relatively hard to address but nonetheless important, do not obtain the attention they deserve. A list of the ethical concerns:

• Bio-safety (Regulations for working in synthetic biology)
• Bio-security (Consequences of synthetic biology, e.g. bio-terrorism)
• Intelectual property rights (conflict of interest, fair distribution of benefits and who owns what?)
• Transparency (open source, availability)
• Communication (towards public and media)
• Naturalness (or artificialness)
• Attitude (towards life)
• Reductionism (consequences and implications when reducing biological systems)

Since the introduction of synthetic biology, ethical issues have been addressed and different opinions, frameworks and solutions have been proposed. To get an overview of opinions and responsibilities relevant to different topics, we propose a framework that describes the main ethical considerations from a personal perspective, as shown in Figure 2.

The personal view describes features on how we perceive synthetic biology, what is our attitude towards life, and why do we participate in such research. The believes, perceptions and reasons for people to understand and work in the field of biology will vary between individuals. It is good to give these different subjects some thought, to make evaluation of the research somewhat easier. Moreover, when working together in a team it is important to know that team members can have different opinions. A healthy discussion can help the research because you can respect each others differences, learn of other viewpoints. Furthermore, it shows peoples personal qualities.

Externally, researchers are responsible on a social level for communication and security of the public. On a scientific level they should concern the safety of themselves and co-workers. In synthetic biology specifically they have to think about the consequences of making biological components freely available, how to deal with intellectual property rights and to what extend the research should be transparent to the community.

Responsibility

The proposed framework can function as a guideline for what is important and what are our responsibilities when working on synthetic biology. Although most of the topics are addressed in literature, policymakers are lagging behind in making regulations concerning these topics. Specifically a lot of questions are raised concerning bio-safety and bio-security. For example, what are the possibilities for bio terrorist or what are the consequences of do-it-yourself synthetic biology, where people can engineer organisms in their own backyard. Regulations and policies should clear up this uncertainty. But the problem is: who is responsible? Should the government create certain guidelines, or should the scientific community self-regulate their own research? Are existing guidelines and safety measures on genetic engineering enough, or do we need to extend this? What about the open source properties, what if somebody patents a gene? Another question that follows from this discussion is whether synthetic biology is as new as some papers make us believe. Do we really need new guidelines? Did we not already describe safety regulations to keep modified organisms in the laboratories?

These are difficult questions, certainly because key stakeholders will have different opinions and demands. Although these questions have an ethical undertone, they are better categorized in the policy and regulatory field. The ethical aspects have been described extensively. It is now up to the policymakers to identify the problems, see where guidelines are needed and implement clear regulations when necessary.

Reductionism in Biology

As has been stated by Arthur Caplan (Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania) during his speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=166192&fuseaction=topics.event_summary&event_id=492968 Synthetic biology: is ethics a showstopper?], the key ethical issues in synthetic biology are reductionism (when life is reduced to genetics) and playing God (the bottom-up approach of creating living systems). Issues concerning safety, security and handling of intellectual property rights should be related to politics not ethics. These topics need good regulation, but ethics does not play a role there. Instead, bio-ethicists should focus on questions concerning life. What happens if the reductionism approach will eventually show us what life is all about? What happens when humans can create living systems? We cannot foresee if research in synthetic biology will be able to reach those goals. But since the scientific community is getting closer en closer to the foundation of living systems, the ethical questions become much more important. To get an overview of what plays a role in evaluating reductionism in synthetic biology, we propose a framework in which we display the connection between evolution, life, and reductionism.

File:Framework 3.jpg

Aim and approach

How does the public and the scientific community feel and think about life-related questions and the reductionism approach in biology? This is difficult and always has been difficult. But now that we are directing evolution and trying to artificially create life, we have come to a point at which we need to discuss these issues. We will never get a clear answer on phylosophical questions such as, "what is life?", even the scientific community is much too homogeneous for that. Still, a discussion to raise awareness and make us think about these questions could help in the debate on whether researchers should pursue the controversial goals that are present in synthetic biology. Furthermore, communication to the general public should be much easier if an overview of the different believes and opinions within the scientific community is available.

A qualitative and quantitative analysis on how the opinions of researchers on reductionism in synthetic biology, could be achieved by approaching many people in this particular field of science (mostly iGEM supervisors and participants). To pursue the quantitative analysis, I would like to invite as many iGEM teams as possible to complete a short questionnaire.

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