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Trends in Biotechnology
Published in Firdos Alam Khan, Biotechnology Fundamentals, 2020
Synthetic biology is a scientific discipline that combines knowledge of science with engineering tools in order to design and build novel biological tissues and systems. The application includes the design and construction of new biological parts of the human body, devices to be used in the human body, and systems to perform human body function. Synthetic biology has been known to produce diagnostic tools for various diseases such as HIV and hepatitis viruses. Furthermore, the term synthetic biology was first used for genetically engineered bacteria that were created by using recombinant DNA technology and synthetic biology is used as a means to design human body parts using biomimetic chemistry, where organic molecules are used to generate artificial molecules that mimic natural molecules like enzymes. Recently, the engineering community has been seeking to extract components from the biological systems to be reassembled in a way that can copycat the living body. Additionally, the biological information can be used to design products that can be used in various ways, for example DNA, which is basically located in the nucleus of a cell, consists of double-stranded anti-parallel strands each having four various nucleotides assembled from bases, sugars, and phosphates, and these combinations can easily be synthetically designed in the lab. In contrast, this is not true for the protein molecule, which is normally more complex and sometimes unpredictable.
Technology assessment in action
Published in Armin Grunwald, Technology Assessment in Practice and Theory, 2018
A famous example of expert groups established for scientific policy advice are Presidential Commissions advising U.S. presidents. As an example, the Presidential Commission on Bioethics (2010) established by Barack Obama explored the potential benefits of synthetic biology, including the development of vaccines and new drugs and the production of biofuels that could someday reduce the need for fossil fuels. It also addressed the risks possibly posed by synthetic biology, including the inadvertent release of a laboratory-created organism into nature and the potential adverse effects of such a release on ecosystems. The Commission urged the policy level to enhance coordination and transparency, to continuously perform risk analysis, to encourage public engagement, and to establish ethics education for researchers. The work of the Commission was again not TA per se but showed several TA elements.
Biological Engineering Designs
Published in Paul H. King, Richard C. Fries, Arthur T. Johnson, Design of Biomedical Devices and Systems, 2018
Paul H. King, Richard C. Fries, Arthur T. Johnson
Synthetic biology poses a severe ethical problem because the organism DNA manipulation is so extreme, the technique is so new, and so little is known about the results of drastic changes in genetic regulation. In addition, creating new life forms taps into our inner instincts about what is natural and what is our relationship to the natural world. Synthetic biology results in entire organisms that have never been found in nature and serve precisely specified human purposes. There is concern, even fear, that these organisms could cause disasters never before found in nature if they were to escape into the surrounding environment. Questions have been raised about public health, environmental contamination, and even deliberate misuse or weaponry. On the other hand are the promises of more effective medicines, intelligent tumor-seeking bacteria, and cheap biofuels that can result from organisms that are designed specifically to provide solutions to current needs. The ethical response to the challenge of synthetic biology is to look at risk-benefit ratios for specific cases, and decide proper responses once sufficient safeguards are in place.
Design of artificial cells: artificial biochemical systems, their thermodynamics and kinetics properties
Published in Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 2022
Adamu Yunusa Ugya, Lin Pohan, Qifeng Wang, Kamel Meguellati
In conclusion, synthetic biology has been gaining importance during the past decade. The biological cell-like structures that exhibit a few key characteristics of living biological cells have been used to construct artificial cells by either the top-down or bottom-up approach, including the building of non-living materials. Nowadays, scientists are consistently relating various genetic materials to produce a wide range of consumer products, from biofuels to cosmetics. In medicine, synthetic biology has emerged as a relatively young field that is pushing boundaries in the creation of microbes that are able to destroy cancer cells in the human body and also clean up our environment. The advantages of using artificial cells are as follows: (a) engineered organisms are replaced to produce pharmaceuticals and fuels; (b) a better way to understand and investigate cellular life; (c) the non-living is connected with the living world; (d) applications in biomedical fields, medical imaging, and drug delivery; and (e) many new functions which are absent in biological cells can be added.