A symposium from 9-10 July took place in Washington DC to discuss the ‘opportunities and challenges’ in the emerging field of synthetic biology.

 According to organisers the meeting brought “together the scientific, engineering, legal, and policy communities along with members of the public”.  This seems an excellent step forward in this exciting but potentially risky field.

So what is synthetic biology?

This is the subject of the latest report from the Emerging Risks team at Lloyd’s (Synthetic Biology: Influencing Development, pdf, 1.2mb).  In a nutshell it’s the next development in genetic modification techniques….

…the ‘Traditional’ Genetic Modification (GM) method cuts DNA from one organism and pastes it into the genome of another, thereby creating a new organism.  It seems odd to use the word ‘traditional’ but in fact these techniques have been around since the 1970s.  The new field of synthetic biology doesn’t need to copy existing DNA; it can create its own—first on the computer and then physically—literally from a primordial soup of raw materials. 

Synthetic biological techniques could be transformative.  Some dreams which are not too far from reality include: engineering bacteria to produce biofuels or cheap drugs; and altering plants to be heat, salt and drought tolerant.  Such successes could be critical in the fight against climate change, water and energy shortage and population growth.

But there are risks, or at least there could be without responsible innovation and appropriate regulation.  A key concern is that, as the techniques rapidly become simpler and cheaper, terrorists will be able to use the new techniques to grow bio-weapons. 

Another concern is that it is almost impossible to predict how an ecosystem will react to a new organism—genes may be swapped unintentionally (this has already happened with some GM plants); and the same goes for human health—we don’t know how these new substances will affect us.

Our new report suggests that the next steps should include:

• mapping uncertainty and then filling the knowledge gaps with a particular focus on understanding health and environmental risks, considering whether existing regulations are appropriate or whether international coordination is called for
• considering extreme high impact, if low probability scenarios as part of risk management
• and tracking the uses of synthetic biology, including mandatory labelling in food.

While it’s still early days, it does appear that a number of insurance lines could be affected in future, so insurers should monitor developments in this field carefully.

Another of our suggested actions is that focus groups should be run involving all stakeholders; so it’s good to see that the symposium mentioned above involved the public.  It will be interesting to see what they conclude.

Download the report: Synthetic Biology: Influencing Development (pdf, 1.2mb)

Tags: Emerging risks, Synthetic biology

This entry was posted by Trevor Maynard on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 11:55 am and is filed under Exposure Management.