Standards for the Design and Engineering of Modular Biological Devices

合成生物学是一门新兴的学科，在这门学科中，科学家们正在应用工程学中更常见的技术来设计和建造具有程序功能的生物装置。该方法使用被称为生物砖的小部件，可以快速、轻松地连接在一起，以提供所需的功能。这种基于零件的方法受到标准化的启发，标准化在工程和每个人的日常生活中都很常见。标准无处不在，从超市，一公斤苹果的重量在任何地方都是一样的，到建筑工地，威尔士制造的门可以在英格兰的墙上安装苏格兰的门框！已经制造了许多合成生物装置，其中大多数都表现出不同寻常和有趣的行为，例如脉冲荧光或感知阴影的边缘。我们正处于一场革命的尖端，从药物到燃料，许多有价值的产品将在生物有机体中合成，这些生物有机体已被重新编程以实现这一目标。为了帮助实现这项技术，人们已经意识到标准迫切需要改进。关于这些标准，还有许多悬而未决的问题需要解决。例如，我们如何测量一个部件的性能，使每个人都能知道该部件在他们的特定设备中是如何工作的？另一个例子可能是，我们如何建立一个计算机模拟，从这些部件的描述来预测设备的性能？我们召集了一群英国顶尖的合成生物学家，他们将定期开会讨论、定义和制定合成生物学的健全标准。该小组将在英国和美国与该领域的特邀专家会面。重要的是，我们将考虑基于零件的合成生物学的其他方面，例如谁拥有零件的知识产权以及该领域应如何监管。为了协助我们完成这项工作，我们请来了在生物技术和基因组学方面具有专业知识的主要社会科学家和律师。讨论的结果将有助于在整个合成生物学社区传播商定的标准。我们还将创建资源，例如合成生物学家使用的经过验证的协议。这些活动具有极大的潜力，可以激发国内外合成生物学社区的活力，并有助于将英国置于欧洲合成生物学的前沿。

Synthetic biology is a new discipline in which scientists are applying techniques more commonly found in engineering to the design and construction of biological devices which have programmed function. The approach uses small parts known as BioBricks which can be quickly and easily joined together to give a desired function. This parts based approach was inspired by standardisation, something commonplace in engineering and everyone's daily lives. Standards can be found everywhere from the supermarket, a kilo of apples weighs the same anywhere, to the building site, a door made in Wales will fit a Scottish doorframe in an English wall! There have been a number of synthetic biological devices made, most of which have shown unusual and interesting behaviour such as pulsing fluorescence or sensing the edge of a shadow for example. We are on the cusp of a revolution in which many valuable products, from drugs to fuel, will be synthesised within biological organisms which have been reprogrammed to achieve this. To help enable this technology there has been the realisation that the standards are in urgent need of refinement. There are many unanswered questions regarding the standards which need to be addressed. For example, how can we measure a part's performance in such a way that everyone can know how the part will function in their particular device? Another example might be how do can we build a computer simulation to predict device performance from these descriptions of parts? We have assembled a group of Britain's leading synthetic biologists who will meet regularly to discuss, define and develop robust standards for synthetic biology. This group will meet in the UK and in the US with invited experts in the field. Importantly, we will consider other aspects of parts based synthetic biology such as who owns intellectual property rights to parts and how the field should be regulated. To assist us in this we have been joined by leading social scientists and lawyers who have established expertise in biotechnology and genomics. The results of the discussions will help to communicate the agreed standards throughout the synthetic biology community. We will also create resources such as validated protocols for synthetic biologists to use. These activities have significant potential to energise the synthetic biology community both at home and abroad and help to put the UK at the front of synthetic biology in Europe.