Risk 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 book series publishes intense and detailed discussions of the various types of risks, causalities and risk assessment procedures. Although the book series is rooted in engineering, it goes beyond the thematic limitation, since decisions related to risks are never based on technical informa- tion alone. Therefore issues of “perceived safety and security” or “risk judgment” are compulsory when discussing technical risks, natural hazards, (environmental) health and social risks. One may argue that social risks are not related to technical risks, however it is well known that social risks are the highest risks for humans and are therefore immanent in all risk trade-offs. The book series tries to cover the discussion of all aspects of risks, hereby crossing the borders of scientific areas. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11582 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 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. 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Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc., in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) 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