Team:UEA-JIC Norwich/Human practices/Interviewtwo

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http://www.4shared.com/audio/vLRJp7dO/VN870008_2.html

Interview Two

Interviewer:

''So basically the first question is do you actually know what Synthetic Biology is?''

Interviewee:

''I think I do.''

Interviewer:

''Would you like to give a definition?''

Interviewee:

''Its creating new biological circuits, using both man made components and new components and existing components from nature to build something which does a particular job what you want it to do, which doesn’t exist previously.''

Interviewer:

''How do you feel about Synthetic Biology?''

Interviewee:

''I think it’s quite exciting. For someone considering a scientific career its quite interesting because it’s very different to... being a member of a project, trying to find out how something works in nature, in ‘how does actually this operate’ and you don’t know if it’s possible to find this out now, you might not have the necessary background and it might be years time before its possible. With Synthetic Biology your starting from scratch and your making it yourself, you don’t have that risk of the project. So it’s quite attractive from a career point of view as well. ''

Interviewer:

''Have you actually even done much Synthetic Biology?''

Interviewee:

''Well no, not what most people would call Synthetic Biology. Making fluorescence fusions and things like this to study processes, not trying to create some new functionality.''

Interviewer:

''Has the media influenced your opinion at any point?''

Interviewee:

''No, not really. It hasn’t had a huge amount of exposure. Things like, Craig Venter’s putting a different genome of one bacterium into a ‘shell’ of another bacteria. So what’s been created is synthetic bacteria. I’m not sure if that counts to be honest.''

Interviewer:

''Yeah, there was one i actually saw. I can’t remember who it was now. This guy, it was quite recent, got a whole genome of his own, and the E.Coli would product something which killed the cells, a sort of virus which attacks the cells. Do you know what Genetic Modification is?''

Interviewee:

''Yes.''

Interviewer:

''How do you feel towards that?''

Interviewee:

''Comparing, it’s an integral part of Synthetic Biology. It entirely depends on the application, and depends on how sensitive people feel about it. So where the technologies containment, seems most people are happy how it’s used.''

Interviewer:

''Do you think that the above approaches, Synthetic Biology and GM could help the world? If yes, how could these two principles be applied?''

Interviewee:

''Yes. Probably mostly in ways we haven’t even thought of yet. The potential is so massive because your using the diversity of nature, which is huge, the complexity is huge. You have access to all this, recombine these in new ways, the possibilities are literally endless. There are important social and ethical things to think about. But once society has sorted those out I think it will be, maybe in 100, 150 years time, it will be integral part of your daily life. It’s very new science at this degree.''

Interviewer:

''So you think this approach would be more beneficial than harmful?''

Interviewee:

''Yes I think so, given that people are going to think very carefully about how it’s used.''

Interviewer:

''Would your possibly feel any different if more information was readily available?''

Interviewee:

''Probably not hugely, but it depended on what information''