Taking Stock of Security Concerns Related to Synthetic Biology in an Age of Responsible Innovation

Edwards, Brett

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2014.00079

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…However, for the moment, policy interventions are being very discreet, in particular with regard to the establishment of mandatory regulations and laws (Edwards, 2014). In this respect, (Colussi, 2015) finds that existing regulations against bioterrorism cannot be automatically extended to the case of Synthetic Biology in some instances.…”

Section: Development Of Regulations and Funding Policies To Promote Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Biosafety and biosecurity in Synthetic Biology: A review

Gómez-Tatay

Hernández-Andreu

2019

Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology

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Synthetic Biology is a growing field which holds great promise in several areas of application. However, it also poses serious risks for human health and the environment that must be anticipated in order to develop effective prevention and management measures. Here, the current situation on biosafety and biosecurity in this scientific field is reviewed. Biosafety concerns mainly relate to the damaging effects for workers and the environment that could result from accidental interactions with dangerous biological agents. On the other hand, biosecurity risks refer to the potential misuses of Synthetic Biology, such as bioterrorism, biowarfare or bioattacks that could derive from the genetic engineering of organisms. In this paper, the specific challenges posed by Synthetic Biology are discussed, and perspectives in the development of measures to guide the safe advance of this discipline are presented.

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Section: Development Of Regulations and Funding Policies To Promote Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Biosafety and biosecurity in Synthetic Biology: A review

Gómez-Tatay

Hernández-Andreu

2019

Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology

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“…[45] Additionally, a frequently discussed issue is the problem of possible misuse of the results and products of SB. [44,[48][49][50] Notably, this aspect has been addressed in the 2016 report of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology where genetic engineering tools were classified as a potential element of weapons of mass destruction. Insofar as such reagents, information, and new technological approaches have the potential to be used both for beneficial as well as for harmful purposes, the work involved is designated as "dual use research."…”

Section: Synthetic Biology: At Least Safe and Sound?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[47] The term "dual use research of concern" (DURC) has gained international customary usage as a more precise expression for this range of possible use and misuse. [44,[48][49][50] Notably, this aspect has been addressed in the 2016 report of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology where genetic engineering tools were classified as a potential element of weapons of mass destruction. [51] Nevertheless, there still remains a structural problem: as research within emerging biotechnologies moves on so fast, it will not be possible to hold regulatory conventions such as the Biological Weapons Convention in line with the speed of development.…”

Section: Synthetic Biology: At Least Safe and Sound?mentioning

confidence: 99%

(Re‐)Designing Nature? An Overview and Outlook on the Ethical and Societal Challenges in Synthetic Biology

Braun

Fernau

2019

Adv. Biosys.

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to provide an initial systematization of the ethical and socio-scientific debate on SB by structuring and categorizing issues that have been widely discussed and debated in recent years. The investigation included international ethical and societal research on SB, covering the period from January 2010 to December 2017. Even though we are aware that there have been several developments before it was referred to as SB, [6] this sample period was selected as the experiments of Craig Venter and his team in the year 2010 marked the birth of broader public and scientific attention to SB, as well as the rise and further establishment of SB as a distinct research discipline.We predefined five main fields of ethical research in order to map the scope of the respective debates. These fields were based on theoretical presuppositions informed by our preliminary theoretical and empirical research and the resulting experiences within the field of ethical and societal challenges of SB. The five fields are: 1) the definition and scope of possible applications; 2) questions of biosafety and -security; 3) the impact of SB on taken-for-granted cultural perceptions and values; 4) SB as a new mode of public participation in science; 5) issues of sustainable governance and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). With these five fields in mind, we searched for relevant articles on Scopus and PubMed. These are two of the largest international research databases, which cover a broad spectrum of ethical and socio-scientific work within the context of biotechnologies. The selected search term was "synthetic biology" in combination with several distinctive codes, which can be assigned to the aforementioned predefined main fields of ethical research ( Table 1).In general, our literature analysis has several methodological limitations. As it is not a comprehensive systematic literature review, it does not provide a broad set of quantitative data scrutinizing all debates, issues and questions on the ethical and societal challenges in SB. Nevertheless, our analysis provides a structured overview on and an initial systematization of the most relevant topics within the discussion on SB in recent years. Additionally, this article aims to provide an analysis and discussion of the current state of play of ethical and societal issues in SB.The first section is concerned with the question of a possible definition of SB and the issue of how we could describe and analyze its technological progress with regard to ethical and societal challenges. As one frequent debate of the last few This structured literature analysis aims to map the current, emerging, and predicted future of synthetic biology (SB) by putting the focus on the implied conceptual, societal, and ethical challenges. The central objective of the analysis is to provide an initial systematization of the ethical and socio-scientific debate on SB by structuring and categorizing widely discussed issues within the debate in recent years. Starting with the quest for possible definitions, issues ...

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“…Though discussions of these concerns are generally in accord, they comprise b5% of the literature in the SynBio physical and social sciences research domains (Trump et al, 2019). Furthermore, such discussions are often speculative because the experimental data to definitively support or refute these concerns are limited (Edwards, 2014;Bates et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A quantitative risk assessment method for synthetic biology products in the environment

Rycroft¹,

Hamilton²,

Haas³

et al. 2021

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The need to prevent possible adverse environmental health impacts resulting from synthetic biology (SynBio) products is widely acknowledged in both the SynBio risk literature and the global regulatory community. However, discussions of potential risks of SynBio products have been largely speculative, and the attempts to characterize the risks of SynBio products have been non-uniform and entirely qualitative. As the discipline continues to accelerate, a standardized risk assessment framework will become critical for ensuring that the environmental risks of these products are characterized in a consistent, reliable, and objective manner that incorporates all SynBio-unique risk factors. Current established risk assessment frameworks fall short of the features required of this standard framework. To address this, we propose the Quantitative Risk Assessment Method for Synthetic Biology Products (QRASynBio) – an incremental build on established risk assessment methodologies that supplements traditional paradigms with the SynBio risk factors that are currently absent and necessitates quantitative analysis for more transparent and objective risk characterizations. The proposed framework facilitates defensible quantification of the environmental risks of SynBio products in both foreseeable and hypothetical use scenarios. Additionally, we show how the proposed method can promote increased experimental investigation into the likelihood of hazard and exposure parameters and highlight the parameters where uncertainty should be reduced, leading to more targeted risk research and more precise characterizations of risk.

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Taking Stock of Security Concerns Related to Synthetic Biology in an Age of Responsible Innovation

Cited by 9 publications

References 10 publications

Biosafety and biosecurity in Synthetic Biology: A review

Biosafety and biosecurity in Synthetic Biology: A review

(Re‐)Designing Nature? An Overview and Outlook on the Ethical and Societal Challenges in Synthetic Biology

A quantitative risk assessment method for synthetic biology products in the environment

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