| Posted: July 10, 2008 |
Invitation to participate in a survey on synthetic biology |
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(Nanowerk News) Dr. Gregor Wolbring at the University of Calgary is the convener of a team of four undergraduate students that looks into the ethical, legal, social issues of synthetic biology. The "Calgary iGEM Ethics Team" will present their finding at the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition iGEM.
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The Calgary IGEM Ethics team is the first undergraduate team allowed to
look into the ethical, legal, social issues of synthetic biology. The
students developed this survey and plan to use this survey as one
output for its November presentation.
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The purpose of this study is to better understand the level of knowledge you and others have about the emerging field of synthetic biology, what you feel the future of synthetic biology holds, what you feel the implications of advances in synthetic biology may be and what you think the framework of governance for synthetic biology should be.
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One definition of synthetic biology is: the design and construction of new biological parts, devices, and systems: and the re-design of existing, natural biological systems for useful purposes.
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You will be asked a series of questions regarding to the emerging scientific field of synthetic biology, its future, and its governance. You will have to answer 41 questions of the online survey.
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The International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition is the premiere Synthetic Biology competition and currently the largest
Synthetic Biology conference in the world. Working at their own schools
over the summer, participants use standard biological parts to design,
build, and operate biological systems in living cells. During the first
weekend of November, they share their work at the iGEM Competition
Jamboree at MIT and in competition for a variety of awards for
excellence.
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They add their new parts to the Registry of Standard Biological Parts for the students in the next year's competition.
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Please pass this information on through your networks so that the students get many responses to the synthetic biology survey they designed. They worked very hard on the survey.
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