Ethical Debates on Synthetic Biology

Engineering and ethical perspectives in synthetic biology

Synthetic biology has emerged as an exciting and promising new research field, garnering significant attention from both the scientific community and the general public. This interest results from a variety of striking features: synthetic biology is a truly interdisciplinary field that engages biologists, mathematicians, physicists and engineers; its research focus is applied; and it has enormo...

Synthetic Biology: social and ethical challenges

Contemporary Debates in the Philosophy of Biology : A Historical Review

The philosophy of biology has existed as a distinct sub-discipline within the philosophy of science for about thirty years. The rapid growth of the field has mirrored that of the biological sciences in the same period. Today the discipline is well represented in the leading journals in philosophy of science, as well as in several specialist journals. There have been two generations of textbooks...

Synthetic Biology Takes on Zika.

By the time public health officials implement infrastructure to deal with an outbreak, the threat has often passed. This could change with innovation on a new diagnostic work flow and platform designed by Jim Collins, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Many innovators develop a novel assay and stop there. When Collins, a design thinker, explores a new novel assay, h...

Synthetic biology.

Description: Synthetic biology provides the ability to re-engineer and compose core biological processes in new ways to create robust living systems that address energy, environment, and medical applications. This concentration equips students with essential knowledge and skills on foundational design-oriented models, genetic circuit analysis and design tools, circuit fabrication, characterizat...

Synthetic Biology

The past decade has seen tremendous advances in DNA recombination and measurement techniques. These advances have reached a point in which de novo creation of biomolecular circuits that accomplish new functions is now possible, leading to the birth of a new field called synthetic biology. Sophisticated functions that are highly sought in synthetic biology range from recognizing and killing canc...