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Design in synthetic biology

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Abstract

Significant transformations in biological technique and biological work are taking place in the aftermath of genomics. Although existing accounts of genomics and biotechnology contend that species differences and evolutionary histories have undergone ‘flattening’ by molecular techniques and concepts, analysis of design practices in synthetic biology suggests that vertical aggregations of biological technique, substance and work are occurring. This article analyses the movement of design processes into biology by examining software, diagrams and forms of collaboration intersecting in the production of biological constructs such as metabolic pathways, minimal genomes and biological standard parts. In characterising the design processes taking shape in synthetic biology, it develops the concepts of ‘meta-technique’ and ‘meta-material’. The notion of design as a meta-technique shows how synthetic biology assembles techniques and renders them available via practices of collaboration and standardisation. The notion of meta-material suggests ways of thinking about the dynamism of living things infused by models, constructs and layered work-processes. The practical re-deployment of biological techniques we see in the design software, the development of increasingly extensive and interlinked biological constructs assembled by design, and the shifting enrolments of biological work associated with design as a decoupled work process alter what counts as biological work and what counts as biological substance. The increasing salience of biological design has significant implications for how we conceptualise participation in biotechnology and biomedicine more generally.

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Notes

  1. In the last 10 years, the web has been heavily reconfigured as a service platform. This contrasts with the more common idea of the web as a ‘new medium’. ‘Web services’ embody a contemporary form of attachment to complex, dynamic, distributed products.

  2. The minimal genome synthesised by Daniel Gibson and others and announced in 2008 is meant to pre-emptively eliminate undesirable emergent phenomena associated with cellular environments for the production of genomes. The ‘complete chemical synthesis’ suggests that the genome can be purified of unwanted biological dependencies on cells. However, there are several grounds on which this claim to ‘complete … synthesis’ and hence the control of emergence falls short. It still ‘suffers’ from unwanted dependencies on the specificities of living substance. For instance, while DNA synthesis services can readily supply DNA in 20-kb lengths, the assembly of the fragments into a whole genome, even the minimal 592-kb genome of M. genitalium, still relies on other organisms, and in particular, yeast.

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Acknowledgements

This research was undertaken with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) UK. I would like to acknowledge the ESRC's support.

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Mackenzie, A. Design in synthetic biology. BioSocieties 5, 180–198 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1057/biosoc.2010.4

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