Futurewatch: Trend Summary - Synthetic Biology (2010)
Synthetic biology is an emerging multidisciplinary field that brings principles of engineering to biology. It shifts biotechnology from tinkering with existing organisms to being able to make more fundamental changes. It has been called by some critics "genetic modification on steroids".
A wholly novel organism has not yet been built from scratch, but the genomes of existing organisms (viruses and small bacteria) are now being chemically synthesised and introduced into other cells to create self-replicating organisms. This Trend Summary outlines some of the recent scientific developments, potential applications of synthetic organisms, and some of the challenges and concerns associated with synthetic biology. To stimulate thinking about policy implications for New Zealand this report also suggests some hypothetical future applications of synthetic biology.
About Attachments...
Publications on this website are mostly PDF files. Information on
the accessibility of PDF documents to people with disabilities is
available on the Adobe website.
To open PDF files you will need Acrobat Reader. It is free to download from the Adobe website:
Download Acrobat Reader
To open Word files you will need Microsoft Word. If your computer
does not have Office installed, you can download the Microsoft Word
Viewer free from the Microsoft website:
Download Microsoft Word Viewer
Most publications on our website can be provided in Word, HTML or Plain Text format on request. Please contact the webmaster if you require a document in an alternative format.