BioBricking at UCSF

January 24, 2008

On March 1, the BioBricks Foundation is organizing a Technical & Legal Standards workshop at UCSF. I hope to be there (need to clear out a couple of things from my calendar), so if any bbgm readers are planning to be there, let me know.

The BioBricks Foundation is a non-profit founded by Drew Endy and others, and “encourages the development and responsible use of technologies based on BioBrick™ standard DNA parts that encode basic biological functions.”

What are BioBricks? BioBricks is a standard for interchangable parts, developed with a view to building biological systems in living cells. You can find out all about them at the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.

Why am I interested? Well, partly cause Drew Endy is involved. I don’t know him personally, but I have heard him talk and anyone with that level of involvement with OpenWetWare gets a huge plus in my book. Most importantly though, I am fascinated by biological engineering. I have always believed that biological systems are marvels of design. Not always perfect, but fulfilling a purpose. The ability to engineer such systems has therefore always been of significant interest (just don’t call it nanotechnology, which drives me nuts). Drew’s approach to bioengineered systems is very interesting, but like in many other areas, I remain “skeptically” optimistic. As fascinating as molecular machinery is, biological systems are also very complex and we don’t quite understand how things work.

What is also important is that we understand the risks and implications. As responsible scientists and citizens, we must self-police, otherwise the naysayers and alarmists become louder and louder and then the regulators come into play, a surefire way to stifle innovation. Not sure how much value my opinion has, but hopefully with my little experience in nanotech and regulatory affairs, there will be something to add.

Technorati Tags: Synthetic Biology, Bioengineering, Drew Endy, BioBricks