2 research outputs found
The power of synthetic biology for bioproduction, remediation and pollution control
The agenda of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 challenges the synthetic biology communityâand the life sciences as a wholeâto develop transformative technologies that help to protect, even expand our planet's habitability. While modern tools for genome editing already benefit applications in health and agriculture, sustainability also asks for a dramatic transformation of our use of natural resources. The challenge is not just to limit and, wherever possible revert emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases, but also to replace environmentally costly processes based on fossil fuels with bioâbased sustainable alternatives. This task is not exclusively a scientific and technical one but will also require guidelines and regulations for the development and largeâscale deployment of this new type of bioâbased production. Some recent advances that can (or soon could) enable us to make progress in these areasâand several possible governance principlesâneed to be addressed