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Safety and ethical aspects of synthetic biology

Objective

Synthetic biology is becoming one of the hottest new fields of biology, with the potential to no less than revolutionize the way we do biotechnology today. By applying the toolbox of engineering disciplines to biology, a whole set of potential applications become possible ranging very widely across scientific and engineering disciplines. Some of the potential benefits of synthetic biology, such as the development of low-cost drugs or the production of chemicals and energy by engineered bacteria are enormous.

There are, however, also potential and perceived risks due to deliberate or accidental damage. In order to ensure a vital and successful development of this new scientific field, it is absolutely necessary to gather information about these risks and to devise possible biosafety strategies to minimize them. Also, ethical issues of synthetic biology just start being explored, with hardly any ethicists specifically focusing on the area of synthetic biology. While few undertakings on safety and ethics have recently started in the US, there is a gap on a European level to investigate these aspects.

Our project would be the first in Europe that focuses particularly on the safety and ethical concerns and tries to facilitate a socially acceptable development in all related fields. We will pursue our objectives by means of a fact-finding mission, contribution to the first European Conference on Synthetic Biology, an open e-forum and an international workshop. The foreseen impact of our project will be no less than to stimulate a European debate on these issues at an early stage.

Past experiences, especially in the field of GM-crops, have shown the importance of an early bio-safety and ethics debate. The community recognized this need, but up to now discussions are fragmentary. Our project aims to stimulate a European debate in a proactive way. That way we will contribute to the European synthetic biology community, supplementing genuine biosafety and bioethics aspects.

Call for proposal

FP6-2005-NEST-PATH
See other projects for this call

Coordinator

ORGANISATION FOR INTERNATIONAL DIALOGUE AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
EU contribution
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Address
Abt-Karl-Gasse 19/21
VIENNA
Austria

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Participants (3)