Table Of ContentRisk Engineering
Bernd Giese
Christian Pade
Henning Wigger
Arnim von Gleich Editors
Synthetic
Biology
Character and Impact
Risk Engineering
Series editor
Dirk Proske, Vienna, Austria
The Springer Book Series Risk Engineering can be considered as a starting point,
looking from different views at Risks in Science, Engineering and Society. The
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Bernd Giese · Christian Pade
Henning Wigger · Arnim von Gleich
Editors
Synthetic Biology
Character and Impact
1 3
Editors
Bernd Giese
Christian Pade
Henning Wigger
Arnim von Gleich
Faculty of Production Engineering
Department of Technological Design
and Development
University of Bremen
Bremen
Germany
ISSN 2195-433X ISSN 2195-4348 (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-319-02782-1 ISBN 978-3-319-02783-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02783-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014947696
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
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Preface
The present contribution is mainly based on presentations of a lecture series held
in winter term 2012/2013 at the University of Bremen. This work is part of the
study “Technology Assessment of Synthetic Biology’’ (SynBioTA) and has been
funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
(grant number: 16I1611). The scientific editors are responsible for the content of
this volume.
We are grateful to the BMBF and our project manager VDI/VDE Innovation
+
Technik GmbH for the opportunity to conduct a research project on synthetic biol-
ogy with particular focus on its scienticfi and technological character, achieve-
ments, and functionalities as well as consequences thereof. We also would like to
express our gratitude to all contributors of this work, all speakers of the lecture
series as well as all that were engaged in the organization and many fruitful discus-
sions during the series. Finally, we highly appreciate the professional editing ser-
vice of Ronald Naiditch and the substantial layout support of our student assistants
Laura Hodrea and Jana Keller.
Bremen, May 2014 Bernd Giese
Christian Pade
Henning Wigger
Arnim von Gleich
v
Contents
Synthetic Biology as Late-Modern Technology ...................... 1
Jan C. Schmidt
Synthetic Biology at the Limits of Science .......................... 31
Alfred Nordmann
Complexity in Synthetic Biology: Unnecessary or Essential? ........... 59
Michael Bölker
Characterizing Synthetic Biology Through Its Novel and
Enhanced Functionalities ........................................ 71
Christian Pade, Bernd Giese, Stefan Koenigstein, Henning Wigger
and Arnim von Gleich
Synthetic Biology: The Next Step Forward for Industrial
Biotechnology ................................................. 105
Gerd Klöck
Beyond Genetic Engineering: Technical Capabilities in the
Application Fields of Biocatalysis and Biosensors .................... 113
Christopher E. French, Louise Horsfall, Damian K. Barnard,
Kwabena Duedu, Eugene Fletcher, Nimisha Joshi, Steven D. Kane,
Sahreena S. Lakhundi, Chao-Kuo Liu, Jan Oltmanns,
David Radford, Alejandro Salinas, Joseph White and Alistair Elfick
Protein Tectons in Synthetic Biology ............................... 139
Stefan M. Schiller
The Cellular Chassis as the Basis for New Functionalities:
Shortcomings and Requirements .................................. 155
Antoine Danchin
vii
viii Contents
Hazards, Risks, and Low Hazard Development Paths of Synthetic
Biology ....................................................... 173
Bernd Giese and Arnim von Gleich
Synthetic Biology and Genetic Engineering: Parallels in Risk
Assessment .................................................... 197
Broder Breckling and Gunther Schmidt
The Regulation of Synthetic Biology by EU Law: Current State
and Prospects .................................................. 213
Gerd Winter
Biotechnology, Modes of Action, and the Value of Life ................ 235
Joachim Boldt
Synthetic Biology as Technoscience and the EEE Concept
of Responsibility ............................................... 249
Armin Grunwald
Index ......................................................... 267
Contributors
Damian K. Barnard School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Joachim Boldt Department of Medical Ethics and the History of Medicine,
Centre for Biological Signalling Studies (BIOSS), Freiburg University, Freiburg im
Breisgau, Germany
Michael Bölker Fachbereich Biologie—Genetik, Philipps-Universität Marburg,
Marburg, Germany
Broder Breckling Centre for Environmental Research and Sustainable Technologies
(UFT), University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Antoine Danchin AMAbiotics SAS, Evry, France
Kwabena Duedu School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, UK
Alistair Elfick School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Eugene Fletcher School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, UK
Christopher E. French School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, UK
Bernd Giese Department of Technological Design and Development, University of
Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Armin Grunwald Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis
(ITAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
Louise Horsfall School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, UK
Nimisha Joshi School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
ix
x Contributors
Steven D. Kane School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, UK
Gerd Klöck Hochschule Bremen, Institut für Umwelt und Biotechnik, Bremen,
Germany
Stefan Koenigstein Department of Technological Design and Development,
University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Sahreena S. Lakhundi School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, UK
Chao-Kuo Liu School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Alfred Nordmann Institut für Philosophie, Technische Universität Darmstadt,
Darmstadt, Germany; Department of Philosophy, University of South Carolina,
Columbia, SC, USA
Jan Oltmanns School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Christian Pade Department of Technological Design and Development, U niversity
of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
David Radford School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, UK
Alejandro Salinas School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, UK
Stefan M. Schiller School of Soft Matter Research, Freiburg Institute for Advanced
Studies, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Gunther Schmidt University of Vechta, Vechta, Germany
Jan C. Schmidt Department of Social Sciences, Darmstadt University of Applied
Sciences, Darmstadt, Germany
Arnim von Gleich Department of Technological Design and Development,
University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Joseph White School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, UK
Henning Wigger Department of Technological Design and Development,
University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Gerd Winter Research Centre for European Environmental Law (FEU), U niversity
of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
