From Robust Synthetic Biological Parts to Whole Systems: Theoretical Practical and Ethical Challenges

合成生物学是一个新的研究领域，旨在设计新的或修改现有的生物途径，以产生具有优异或不同性质的系统，通常用于新的应用。在系统生物学的相关领域中，人们认识到，仅通过列出生物网络的组件来推断生物网络的行为是不可能的，而是需要考虑将它们联系在一起的整个反馈机制；在每个合成生物学设计中也是如此。然而，这些设计需要在细胞环境中实施，合成生物学必须面对的一个主要挑战是，在设计或重新设计过程中需要考虑新途径与细胞环境相互作用的影响。这不同于任何其他工程设计过程，例如电路或计算机工程设计，其中简单部件(例如，电阻)、较复杂组件(例如，晶体管)、甚至整个系统(例如，完整电路)的行为可以在实施后有效地预测(并最终测量和验证)。因此，这对工程学和数学提出了挑战。与此同时，许多工程学科，如控制和计算机工程，多年来一直在处理复杂系统的分析和设计，这些系统必须以稳健的方式在不确定的环境中运行，因此对合成生物学的这一重大挑战有很大贡献：如何构建生物模块，无论这些模块是部件、路径、人工细胞还是在不确定环境中具有性能保证的培养/组织。拟议的合成生物学网络将把合成生物学和系统生物学的工作人员以及系统/控制、电气、化学和计算机工程师、物理学家和数学家聚集在一起，以解决创建强大的生物网络的理论和实践挑战，这些网络可以在不确定的生物环境中发挥作用，从部分系统到整个系统。该网络还将重点关注合成生物学的进步带来的伦理、社会和经济问题，就如何通过环境清理和燃料发电等许多应用的潜在有用性来平衡这些问题展开富有成效的讨论。将提出需要采取的法律和其他措施，以确保合成生物学研究成果不被用于危害社会和社会结构的风险安全。

Synthetic Biology is a new research field which aims in designing new or modifying existing biological pathways in order to produce systems with superior or different properties, usually for a novel application. In the related field of systems biology, it is recognized that it is impossible to infer the biological network behaviour by just listing its components but rather the whole feedback mechanism linking them needs to be considered; the same is true in every Synthetic Biology design. However, these designs need to be implemented inside a cellular environment and a major challenge that synthetic biology has to face is that the effect of the interactions of the new pathways with the cellular environment need to be taken into account during the design or redesign process. This is unlike any other engineering design procedure, such as electrical circuit or computer engineering design, where the behaviour of simple parts (e.g., resistors), of more complicated components (e.g., transistors) or even of whole systems (e.g., complete circuits) can be predicted (and eventually measured and verified) efficiently after implementation. Therefore this poses a challenge to engineering and mathematics. At the same time, many engineering disciplines, such as control and computer engineering, have for years been dealing with the analysis and design of complex systems that have to operate in uncertain environments in a robust way and therefore have a lot to contribute towards this major challenge in Synthetic Biology: how to construct biological modules, whether these are parts, pathways, artificial cells or cultures/tissues with performance guarantees within an uncertain environment. The proposed network in Synthetic Biology will bring together people working in Synthetic and Systems Biology as well as systems/control, electrical, chemical and computer engineers, physicists and mathematicians to address the theoretical and practical challenges of creating robust biological networks that can function inside uncertain biological environments, all the way from parts to whole systems. The network will also focus on ethical, societal and economical concerns that are raised by advances in Synthetic Biology, creating a fruitful discussion on how such concerns can be balanced by the potential usefulness of the many applications, such as environmental cleanup and fuel generation. Legal and other measures that need to be taken in order to ensure that Synthetic Biology research outcomes are not used against society and risk safety of the social structure will be proposed.