Chemical Wonders and Dual Use Dangers From Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology, which involves producing artificial life forms from genomes built on lab benches, promises to unleash a variety of chemical wonders, pose a slate of dual-use dangers, and ignite intellectual property battles over patents for the “software of life.” Rick Weiss provided a whirligig tour of the field and its implications in yesterday’s Washington Post (via the KSJ Tracker).

UC Santa Cruz Chemistry Professor David Deamer offered a brief history of the research and an overview of the science behind the field in a recent Science Progress article. He situates discoveries in synbio with other major scientific advances like semiconductors, penicillin, and atomic energy. In his assessment, the benefits outweigh the risks, and the risks, at the moment, are not significant: “So far, there are virtually no restrictions on this kind of research, nor should there be, in my judgment….The bottom line is that there are always risks associated with every benefit, and that global human society is too complex ever to exert absolute control.”

Weiss catalogs several applications for synthetically engineered organisms. J. Craig Venter proposes to create microbes that directly produce biofuels. LS9 is a San Carlos, CA company currently growing E. coli that processes sugars into liquid fuel. And DuPont uses “semi-synthetic” bacteria to produce PDO, an industrial chemical useful in a variety of applications, including adhesives, laminates, and polyester fibers. A current medical application produces super-efficient bacteria that generate artemisinin, a malaria drug.

If the danger of malevolent synbio projects is indeed manageable, Weiss points to another possible policy concern—the hazard of anti-competitive hegemony in the field:

Some experts are worried that a few maverick companies are already gaining monopoly control over the core ‘operating system’ for artificial life and are poised to become the Microsofts of synthetic biology. That could stifle competition, they say, and place enormous power in a few people’s hands.

This possibility raises the question: can and should the Federal government regulate ownership of the building blocks of life and the tools with which to manipulate them?

Tags: synbio

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