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Drew EndyStanford BioengineeringThe BioBricks Foundation

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical IssuesWashington DC8 July 2010

Overview and Context of the Technology of Synthethic Biology

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Mice from dirty rags & wheat bran

Life has not now been created from inanimate matter.

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Synthetic genomes are a BTD (Big Technical Deal)

Natural living systems,Direct generational descent, Replication with error,Natural selection.

Synthetic living systems,“Decoupled” promulgation over time, Replication with representation,Fashioned selections.

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Big stresses can arise when material and information become interconvertible.- Changes in business and distribution models

(ongoing transitions from CDs & DVDs, to MP3s & Internet TV)- Challenges to safety & security frameworks (from control of material, to control of information)- Avoidance of nation state and cultural relations (border controls for DNA sequences on the internet, really?)- Increases in scale and pace (overloading of current practices)

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TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGAGA

DNA Construction = #1 Tech. of 21st Ctry.From

absract information to physical, living DNA designs.

2004: 10,000 bp2010: 1,000,000 bp2016: 100 million?

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~99% Genetic Engineering:<20 kb DNA, ~1 dozen DNA components

Genome Synthesis:>8 mb DNA, ~1000+ DNA components?!

~4 meter gap

400-fold “biointegration gap,” today.

(We are relatively bad at putting the molecules of biology back together in useful ways)

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if {growing} call wintergreen()else call bananas()

Beyond synthetic genomes: We’ll need languages & grammars for writing DNA

poetry

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To Have the Chance of Being Ethical,We Must Lead Future Biotech. Tool

RevolutionsDNA Sequencing

Read Out the Genetic Code

Recombinant DNA

Basic “Cut” & “Paste”

Polymerase Chain Reaction

Amplify & Make Simple Changes

First Gen.

Biotech=

...

Next Gen.

BiotechAddsNew Tools

=

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- We often learn best by tinkering. Today, most of biology remains unknown; we stand to learn more than ever before via a synthetic approach.

The Technical Ethics of Synthetic Biology

- Freedom of the (DNA) press. There are now no sustained public investments in getting better at building DNA; leverage over the presses can lead to control of content (i.e., what is written).

- Preparedness and reconciliation. More accidents will happen; more misuses will occur; nature is not a liberal representative democracy; how do we make such truths not intolerable?

- Institutions & individuals; hackers are community. The tools of synthetic biology make biotechnology, today’s *most* compelling technology, available to many. Do we enable or ostracize a future world of “Do-It-Together” biotechnology? Let’s not overlook many basics (e.g., property rights).