Synthetic biology UK: progress, paradigms and prospects

Abstract

Drawing comparisons with the study of scientific revolutions by Thomas Kuhn over 50 years ago it is possible to frame synthetic biology as a new paradigm, approaching biology and its potential for redesign from an engineering and information management standpoint. This may help relate it to current thinking about potentially revolutionary future developments stemming from the recent and very rapidly progressing convergence of relevant technologies. However, striking differences from Kuhn's historic examples may also be noted – not only a greater awareness today of potential impacts that highlights the importance of explicitly incorporating broader issues of responsibility and governance but also the rapid growth in numbers of new researchers and entrepreneurs to the field globally which could accelerate the paradigm-shift process. The UK Synthetic Biology Roadmap 2012 and subsequent 2016 Strategy set out to develop a mechanism to respond nationally to this wider perspective, and examples, both UK and global, are drawn upon to help assess current progress towards the realisation of an ‘engineering biology’ paradigm.