On Dec 16, the 13-member US Presidential Commission
for the Study of Bioethical Issues published a 188-page document entitled New Directions: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies
. President Barack Obama asked the Commission last May to assess the status of synthetic biology
on the same day that the J Craig Venter Institute announced the creation of the first synthetic living cell.
The Commission rightly concludes that a new life form was not created by Venter's team, which inserted a synthetic
(man-made) genome of a naturally existing bacterium into a related bacterial cell. The process, the group stated, only represents an alteration of an already existing life form.
The report's 18 recommendations were unanimously endorsed by the Commission. On the one hand, the group encourages the expansion of research within the emerging specialty of synthetic biology. On the other, the group emphasises that the field of synthetic biology is in its infancy and does not yet pose any immediate bio-terror (deliberate) or bio-error (inadvertent) threats in creating new organisms that might warrant formation of new federal oversight bodies. Instead, cross-governmental coordination, oversight, and monitoring of the specialty's scientific progress are recommended. To aid transparency, the report advises that a biology equivalent of the political factcheck.org
site is created, as a resource and forum for discussion.
Artificially altered organisms tailored to deliver customised drugs or targeted vaccines are already being made. Early in 2012, more efficient full-scale production of the antimalarial drug (artemisinin) from engineered Escherichia coli is to begin. Production of influenza vaccine is another key area of research.
The global market for synthetic biology is projected to exceed US$4·5 billion by 2015. Most of the relevant research is currently being pioneered in the USA. The rest of the world should reorganise its existing synthetic biology brain power and technological potential. What is also lacking within the promising emerging field of synthetic biology is international guidance and prioritisation. Synthetic biology must be a global endeavour.
(20K) Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues