Team:Peking S/project/hp/risk

Human Practice

Introduction|Synthetic Biology vs. Genetically Modified Organism|Public Investigation|Risks and Measurements Analysis |Acknowledgement&Reference

Risks and Measurements Analysis

Given the potential of technology to engineer new organism, synthetic biology poses several risks that need to be prevented. It is necessary to regulate the kind of research performed in such areas along with principles to ensure researcher conduct adheres to established guidelines.

Some of the risks posed by products of synthetic biology are outlined below:

•negative environmental impact: A synthetically created micro-organism could have a side effect of interacting withanother environmental substanceand impact the overall environment negatively.

•natural genome pool contamination: Any genetic exchange between a synthetic biological entity and a naturally occurring biological entity would result in natural genome contamination.

•uncontrolled consequence: Synthetic biology products released into the environment to accomplish a specific task should have a controlled lifespan outside the lab. If this is not the case, one can envision unintended consequences of a system run amuck.

Three legal framework the law uses to regulate genetic technology have been described in the literature[3]: Individual Rights and Duties, Scientific Regulation by Administrative agencies, and Legislative Pre-emption. An analysis of the needs of synthetic biology is presented below.

•Individual Rights and Duties

•Researchers have to be aware of the possible impact of the possible impact of their research methods and products.

•Any people have the rights to sue when they find the damage of the synthetical organisms.

•Scientific Regulation by Administrative Agencies

Box1. Although our system includes several genes from Vibrio cholera, Streptomyces griseus and S. coelicolor,
respectively, these genes are not directly     involved with virulence or antibiotic resistance in any case.

In the context of synthetic biology, regulatory agencies need to address the following issue:

•All of the synthetic biology product should have a lifespan under control when applied outside the laboratory.

•There should be little possibility of synthetic organism genetic exchanging with naturally organisms.

•Before applied, synthetic organism must be well characterized through an extensive test protocol.

Box2.In our lab, bacterial cells are preserved in certain conditions and all the materials and instruments, 

wastes included, are sterilized with alcohol or bleach after experiments. In addition, our protocols are carefully designed to eliminate potential hazards to the public or to the environment.