Life is transformed

Financial Times Editorial:

Genetic engineering is beginning to live up to its name. Over the past 30 years it has meant transferring existing genes, one at a time, between organisms. Now - under the banner of "synthetic biology" - scientists are using the principles of systems engineering to transform whole organisms and potentially even to create novel forms of life.

Synthetic biology is sufficiently different from old-style genetic engineering to need a new system of regulation and governance, plus a fresh effort by its practitioners to tell the public what they are up to. Enormous benefits could flow from their work - practical pay-offs, such as new medicines and biofuels, as well as scientific insights into the nature of life.

But there are serious concerns too. First is bio-safety. Synthetic biology involves the production of novel living organisms that are self-replicating and potentially uncontrollable if something goes wrong.

Such fears were voiced in the mid-1970s when scientists first discovered how to snip a piece of DNA out of one organism and splice it into another. Indeed everyone in the field agreed to a voluntary moratorium on genetic engineering while they considered the safety consequences. Soon work resumed and, to this day, no serious accident can be blamed on the genetic manipulation of microbes.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 16, 2009 4:11 AM
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