Freedom and Responsibility in Synthetic Genomics: The Synthetic Yeast Project

First introduced in 2011, the Synthetic Yeast Genome (Sc2.0) PROJECT is a large international synthetic genomics project that will culminate in the first eukaryotic cell (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) with a fully synthetic genome. With collaborators from across the globe and from a range of institution...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Genetics (Austin) 2015-08, Vol.200 (4), p.1021-1028
Main Authors: Sliva, Anna, Yang, Huanming, Boeke, Jef D, Mathews, Debra J H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ethics
Freedom
Genomics
Genomics - ethics
Genomics - legislation & jurisprudence
Intellectual Property
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Saccharomyces cerevisiae - genetics
Safety
Social Control, Formal
Social Responsibility
Synthetic biology
Synthetic Biology - ethics
Synthetic Biology - legislation & jurisprudence
Yeast
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Summary:First introduced in 2011, the Synthetic Yeast Genome (Sc2.0) PROJECT is a large international synthetic genomics project that will culminate in the first eukaryotic cell (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) with a fully synthetic genome. With collaborators from across the globe and from a range of institutions spanning from do-it-yourself biology (DIYbio) to commercial enterprises, it is important that all scientists working on this project are cognizant of the ethical and policy issues associated with this field of research and operate under a common set of principles. In this commentary, we survey the current ethics and regulatory landscape of synthetic biology and present the Sc2.0 Statement of Ethics and Governance to which all members of the project adhere. This statement focuses on four aspects of the Sc2.0 PROJECT: societal benefit, intellectual property, safety, and self-governance. We propose that such project-level agreements are an important, valuable, and flexible model of self-regulation for similar global, large-scale synthetic biology projects in order to maximize the benefits and minimize potential harms.
ISSN:1943-2631
0016-6731
1943-2631
DOI:10.1534/genetics.115.176370