Synthetic Biology (SB) is an engineering research field aiming at (re)designing biological circuits for applied purposes. The outstanding success of SB in the last years should not hide the difficulties in defining, promulgating and adopting biological standards: there are both historical and technical difficulties to reach that ambitious goal.
As with any other engineering field, it strongly relies on the use of well-defined, universal and robust standard components, having the difficulties in standardisation a bottleneck effect on the development of Synthetic Biology. The benefits of improving standardisation of biological systems are overwhelming, as, despite the different visions, there is a clear consensus on the dramatic boost even a moderate improvement in standardization would have in the establishment of the bio-economy and the 4th Industrial revolution at large. On this background, the specific objectives of BIOROBOOST include:
• The setup of an international collaborative network on SB standards with a strong momentum for a sustained engagement beyond the lifetime of the Project.
• Elaboration of a real-time catalogue of research needs on biological standards whose fulfilment demands international teamwork beyond the European realm.
• Coordination of existing material (eg repositories) and computational (eg databases, languages) resources for standardized biology along with harmonization of future initiatives.
• Stocktaking of ongoing standardisation practices aimed at promoting conceptual consensuses and technical (re)definition of biological standards and their metrology in live systems
• Developing and offering the academic and industrial SB community a usable, realistic and flexible toolbox of standardized biological assets, including chassis for specific applications.
• Anticipating societal ramifications and cultural reactions to standardised biology by engaging in a continuous conversation and informed debate with cognate stakeholders.
The development and adoption of standards along the lines identified by BIOROBOOST will increase industrial competitiveness, innovation and productivity of European industry, namely in the Bioetch realm, but also in other connected fields where SB constitutes an enabling driver.
Improving the predictability of biological design demands the development of an ecosystem of standards that will have an impact by:
- Reducing the perceived unreliability of engineering biology, due to the context-dependent and complex emergent character of living systems
- Allowing researchers to build ever more sophisticated devices and systems
- Promoting the translation of SB to socioeconomic and environmental impacts benefitting the whole society.
