Bioengineering horizon scan 2020

Abstract

Horizon scanning is intended to identify the opportunities and threats associated with technological, regulatory and social change. In 2017 some of the present authors conducted a horizon scan for bioengineering (Wintle et al., 2017). Here we report the results of a new horizon scan that is based on inputs from a larger and more international group of 38 participants. The final list of 20 issues includes topics spanning from the political (the regulation of genomic data, increased philanthropic funding and malicious uses of neurochemicals) to the environmental (crops for changing climates and agricultural gene drives). The early identification of such issues is relevant to researchers, policy-makers and the wider public.

Insect pest management in the age of synthetic biology

“…While living biodispensers would not be useful for attract and kill strategies where the pheromone and an insecticide are combined within a trap, they could be used in mating disruption strategies in which the aim is to impede the ability of males to locate a female mate. In 2020, live plant dispensers of chemical signals were included in a shortlist of emerging products of bioengineering (Kemp et al ., 2020 ) and, recently, transgenic N. benthamiana plants transformed with a three‐gene pathway resulted in the production of high levels of the (Z) ‐11‐hexadecen‐1‐ol (Z11‐16OH) and (Z) ‐11‐hexadecenyl acetate (Z11‐16OAc) components of moth pheromones (Mateos‐Fernández et al ., 2021 ). Although pheromone production was shown to negatively influence plant growth and only a small fraction of the pheromones were released to the environment in volatile forms, this first report of a living biodispenser could pave the way for future iterations.…”

80 questions for UK biological security

“…Rapid changes in bioengineering technologies present both biosecurity threats as well as the possibility of new tools to address these challenges. We take a broad definition of bioengineering as “the application of ideas, principles and techniques to the engineering of biological systems” [ 20 ]. CRISPR/Cas mediated gene silencing and gene editing (and related technologies) have the potential to modify existing pathogenic organisms and resulting toxins—or to create new ones—in ways which might advance understanding of and response to disease threats, but which might also facilitate misuse or result in increased toxicity and/or virulence.…”

“…These include new diseases that spread from animals to humans, new plant and animal diseases, existing human, plant and animal diseases that spread into new areas, pathogenic agents that become resistant to existing treatments (e.g., drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis), diseases that continue to have severe impacts on people despite existing treatments (e.g., HIV-AIDS), and diseases that change in severity when introduced into new settings (e.g., amphibian chytridiomycosis). There were several questions about the impacts that such diseases could have (questions [18][19][20][21] and the potential shifts that could occur due to changes in climate, land use and disease vectors (questions 22-24) [36][37][38], or genotypic or phenotypic changes in influenza viruses (questions [25][26][27]. Influenza virus was the focus of several questions as its potential to change virus genotypes and phenotypes, as well as its mode and speed of spread makes it a serious pandemic threat.…”

Analysis of mergers and acquisitions between 2009 and 2020

“…According to Crawford (2020), in 2020 the greatest influence on the world economic development transformation was produced by bioengineering research in the following areas: Tissue Engineering, Transdermal Patches, smart mobile devices woven into fabric or printed in 3D printer (Wearable Devices), Robotic Surgeons and Rehabilitation, Nanorobots, Virtual Reality, Microbubbles, Prime Editing, Organ-on-a-Chip, Mini Bioreactors. According to Kemp et al (2020), in 10 years or more, the most relevant issues in the bioengineering and pharmaceuticals development will be bio-based production of materials, live plant dispensers of chemical signals, malicious use of advanced neurochemistry, enhancing carbon sequestration, porcine bioengineered replacement organs and the governance of cognitive enhancement.…”