17 Facts About Synthetic biology

Synthetic biology is a multidisciplinary area of research that seeks to create new biological parts, devices, and systems, or to redesign systems that are already found in nature.

Synthetic biology has traditionally been divided into two different approaches: top down and bottom up.

Synthetic biology noted this term in another publication, La Biologie Synthetique in 1912.

Engineers view biology as a technology Synthetic biology includes the broad redefinition and expansion of biotechnology, with the ultimate goals of being able to design and build engineered live biological systems that process information, manipulate chemicals, fabricate materials and structures, produce energy, provide food, and maintain and enhance human health, as well as advance fundamental knowledge of biological systems and our environment.

Studies in synthetic biology can be subdivided into broad classifications according to the approach they take to the problem at hand: standardization of biological parts, biomolecular engineering, genome engineering, metabolic engineering.

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Cellular agriculture focuses on the production of agricultural products from cell cultures using a combination of biotechnology, tissue engineering, molecular biology, and synthetic biology to create and design new methods of producing proteins, fats, and tissues that would otherwise come from traditional agriculture.

Three key components are involved: DNA, RNA and Synthetic biology biologist designed gene circuits that can control gene expression from several levels including transcriptional, post-transcriptional and translational levels.

The improvements of metabolic engineering by synthetic biology is an example of a biotechnological technique utilized in industry to discover pharmaceuticals and fermentive chemicals.

Synthetic biology raised NASA's interest as it could help to produce resources for astronauts from a restricted portfolio of compounds sent from Earth.

Synthetic biology has been used for organoids, which are lab-grown organs with application to medical research and transplantation.

Synthetic biology can be used for creating nanoparticles which can be used for drug-delivery as well as for other purposes.

Ethical aspects of synthetic biology has 3 main features: biosafety, biosecurity, and the creation of new life forms.

Ethics and moral rationales that support certain applications of synthetic biology include their potential mititgation of substantial global problems of detrimental environmental impacts of conventional agriculture, animal welfare, food security and human health, as well as potential reduction of human labor needs and, via therapies of diseases, reduction of human suffering and prolonged life.

Since synthetic biology raises ethical issues and biosecurity issues, humanity must consider and plan on how to deal with potentially harmful creations, and what kinds of ethical measures could possibly be employed to deter nefarious biosynthetic technologies.

Richard Lewontin wrote that some of the safety tenets for oversight discussed in The Principles for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology are reasonable, but that the main problem with the recommendations in the manifesto is that "the public at large lacks the ability to enforce any meaningful realization of those recommendations".

Hazards of synthetic biology include biosafety hazards to workers and the public, biosecurity hazards stemming from deliberate engineering of organisms to cause harm, and environmental hazards.

Synthetic biology generally falls under existing regulations for GMOs and biotechnology in general, and any regulations that exist for downstream commercial products, although there are generally no regulations in any jurisdiction that are specific to synthetic biology.