Emerging biotechnologies: full report - Nuffield Council on Bioethics

E m e r g i n g b i o t e c h n o l o g i e s
bacteriophage. 111 The purpose of this research is to generate knowledge that could, for
example, lead to new synthetic vaccines in response to viruses that are themselves “diverse
and variable”, such as those that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome and hepatitis C. 112
On a wider scale, protocell research involves the attempt to recreate living cells from very
simple components, 113 with the aim of creating new forms of life. 114
Metabolic pathway engineering
2.21 A related area that has been researched since the since the 1990s is the manipulation of
existing metabolic pathways to produce new products, the most well-known example of which is
the construction of an artificial metabolic pathway in E. coli and yeast to produce a precursor
(arteminisinic acid) for an anti-malarial drug. 115 It has been suggested that an approach such as
this could be used to produce therapeutically useful compounds for the treatment of cancer and
HIV 116 , as well as polyketides, 117 a class of drugs with a variety of uses, such as the production
of antibiotics 118 and insecticides. 119 This approach is also being used to produce biofuels,
although firms are currently experiencing difficulties in scaling-up production to commercially
viable levels. 120
Alternative biologies
2.22 Whereas these approaches involve pushing the boundaries of natural systems in order to learn
more about them, ‘xenobiology’ research attempts to make a biology that is altogether different
from that which is found in nature. 121 An example of this approach is the attempt to use different
kinds of nucleic acid – for example ‘xeno-nucleic acid’ – as opposed to the familiar RNA or DNA
that occur in nature. 122
2.23 In its current incarnation, synthetic biology is a young field 123 which means that most of the
discussion around it is prospective and promissory, with only a few examples, such as the
production of artemisinic acid, drawn on repeatedly to justify its promise. In practice, synthetic
biologists continually confront the complex and context-dependent nature of biological
systems. 124 However, in recent years the field has generated much enthusiasm and,
increasingly, funding, because it is application-oriented and is seen by governments as a
potential source of economic growth. 125
111 Smith HO, Hutchison III CA, Pfannkoch C and Venter JC (2003) Generating a synthetic genome by whole genome
assembly: φX174 bacteriophage from synthetic oligonucleotides Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100:
15440-5.
112 Garfinkel MS, Endy D, Epstein GL and Friedman RM (2007) Synthetic genomics: options for governance, available at:
http://www.jcvi.org/cms/fileadmin/site/research/projects/synthetic-genomics-<strong>report</strong>/synthetic-genomics-<strong>report</strong>.pdf.
113 Deamer D (2005) A giant step towards artificial life? Trends in Biotechnology 23: 336-8.
114 Bedau MA and Parke EC (Editors) (2009) The ethics of protocells: moral and social implications of creating life in the
laboratory (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press).
115 Ro DK, Paradise EM, Ouellet M et al. (2006) Production of the antimalarial drug precursor artemisinic acid in engineered
yeast Nature 440: 940-3.
116 Voigt CA and Keasling JD (2005) Programming cellular function Nature Chemical Biology 1: 304-7.
117 Heinemann M and Panke S (2006) Synthetic biology — putting engineering into biology Bioinformatics 22: 2790-9.
118 See: Baltz RH (2006) Molecular engineering approaches to peptide, polyketide and other antibiotics Nature Biotechnology
24: 1533-40.
119 Martin CJ, Timoney MC, Sheridan RM et al. (2003) Heterologous expression in Saccharopolyspora erythraea of a
pentaketide synthase derived from the spinosyn polyketide synthase Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry 1: 4144-7.
120 Bullis K (2011) Why Amyris is focusing on moisturizers, not fuel, for now Technology Review 9 May, available at:
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/427890/why-amyris-is-focusing-on-moisturizers-not-fuel.
121 Schmidt M (2010) Xenobiology: a new form of life as the ultimate biosafety tool BioEssays 32: 322-31.
122 Pinheiro VB, Taylor AI, Cozens C et al. (2012) Synthetic genetic polymers capable of heredity and evolution Science 336:
341-4.
123 The term can be traced back to 1912 to Leduc’s book La biologie synthétique, but the first conference called ‘Synthetic
Biology’ (Synthetic Biology 1.0) was not held until 2004 at MIT. See: Syntheticbiology.org (2004) The first international
meeting on synthetic biology, available at: http://syntheticbiology.org/Synthetic_Biology_1.0.html.
124 Kwok R (2010) Five hard truths for synthetic biology Nature 463: 288-90.
125 See, for example, the 4 January 2012 speech ‘Our hi-tech future’ by the Minister for Universities and Science:
http://www.bis.gov.uk/news/speeches/david-willetts-policy-exchange-britain-best-place-science-2012.
30