CSP - Symposium: Building a Synthetic Cell
Abstract
We organize a future-oriented symposium aimed at exploring the scientific challenges,technological opportunities, and societal impa"ct of one of the grand fundamental challengesof modern science: building a synthetic cell from individual molecular components. The highlevelmeeting of approximately 45 people will consist of a scientific workshop with a 1-dayconsultation with top policy makers" and representatives of science academies. Thesymposium is by invitation only, and will take place at Ringberg Castle, Germany, in"" July 2017.The quest for synthetic life is a worldwide effort, in which the United States and Europe areplaying a major role. In t""he United States, a top-down approach that aims at stripping downthe genome of existing life to a minimal size has been pioneered."" The European community,on the other hand, has a stronger focus on the more basic science-oriented bottom-upapproach: assembling a"" cell from functional modules. Recently, a group of top Europeanresearchers have taken the initiative to establish a dedicated Euro"pean platform with acommon ambition to engineer synthetic life using this approach. The platform requiresscientific and political" cooperation to more sharply define the research area, to boost fundingto the program/flagship level and to ensure the future excha"nge of ideas and insights. Thiscross-disciplinary and international cooperation will be catalyzed by our proposed high-level3-day" symposium.The symposium will assemble Europe~s top scientists with a range of expertises, includingNobel Prize Laureates, five of"" whom have already agreed to come. The US top-downapproach will be represented by the John Glass from the J Craig Venter Institute,"" and DrewEndy, a visionary pionieer of the Synthetic Biology field. The participants will discuss thescientific background and fut""ure directions of our daring endeavor, the creation ofcooperation and funding, the implications for applications in areas including"" medicine andassociated ethical issues. We will also reach out to our colleagues from Astrobiology, who arealso concerned with asp"ects of alternative and/or artificial life forms.We envisage that the proposed symposium will jump-start a daring scientific endeav"or thatwill result in the development of a synthetic cell. Such an endeavor will depend uponinternational cooperation, which the e"vent will consolidate. We expect that the scientificprogram will take around two decades and transform the way in which we understand lifeand how synthetic life forms can be applied to improve human well-being.Research into synthetic life is of substantial Nava"l significance. The opportunity to work withtop researchers on a second branch of investigation in this area, the bottom-up fabrica""tion ofa synthetic cell, has considerable potential impact for the Navy and Marine Corps. Forexample, the work will have implicati""ons for soft robotics, it will yield a better understandingof life under the extreme conditions that occur in certain marine enviro""nments, and it willhelp defend against biological weapons that can be devised through synthetic biology
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 29, 2017
- Source ID
- N629091712121
Entities
People
- Petra Schwille
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy