Lei Pei

European do‐it‐yourself (DIY) biology: Beyond the hope, hype and horror

The encounter of amateur science with synthetic biology has led to the formation of several amateur/do‐it‐yourself biology (DIYBio) groups worldwide. Although media outlets covered DIYBio events, most seemed only to highlight the hope, hype, and horror of what DIYBio would do in the future. Here, we analyze the European amateur biology movement to find out who they are, what they aim for and how they differ from US groups. We found that all groups are driven by a core leadership of (semi‐)professional people who struggle with finding lab space and equipment. Regulations on genetic modification limit what groups can do. Differences between Europe and the US are found in the distinct regulatory environments and the European emphasis on bio‐art. We conclude that DIYBio Europe has so far been a responsible and transparent citizen science movement with a solid user base that will continue to grow irrespective of media attention.

Synthetic Toxicology: Where Engineering Meets Biology and Toxicology

This article examines the implications of synthetic biology (SB) for toxicological sciences. Starting with a working definition of SB, we describe its current subfields, namely, DNA synthesis, the engineering of DNA-based biological circuits, minimal genome research, attempts to construct protocells and synthetic cells, and efforts to diversify the biochemistry of life through xenobiology. Based on the most important techniques, tools, and expected applications in SB, we describe the ramifications of SB for toxicology under the label of synthetic toxicology. We differentiate between cases where SB offers opportunities for toxicology and where SB poses challenges for toxicology. Among the opportunities, we identified the assistance of SB to construct novel toxicity testing platforms, define new toxicity-pathway assays, explore the potential of SB to improve in vivo biotransformation of toxins, present novel biosensors developed by SB for environmental toxicology, discuss cell-free protein synthesis of toxins, reflect on the contribution to toxic use reduction, and the democratization of toxicology through do-it-yourself biology. Among the identified challenges for toxicology, we identify synthetic toxins and novel xenobiotics, biosecurity and dual-use considerations, the potential bridging of toxic substances and infectious agents, and do-it-yourself toxin production.

Synthetic biology: An emerging research field in China

Synthetic biology is considered as an emerging research field that will bring new opportunities to biotechnology. There is an expectation that synthetic biology will not only enhance knowledge in basic science, but will also have great potential for practical applications. Synthetic biology is still in an early developmental stage in China. We provide here a review of current Chinese research activities in synthetic biology and its different subfields, such as research on genetic circuits, minimal genomes, chemical synthetic biology, protocells and DNA synthesis, using literature reviews and personal communications with Chinese researchers. To meet the increasing demand for a sustainable development, research on genetic circuits to harness biomass is the most pursed research within Chinese researchers. The environmental concerns are driven force of research on the genetic circuits for bioremediation. The research on minimal genomes is carried on identifying the smallest number of genomes needed for engineering minimal cell factories and research on chemical synthetic biology is focused on artificial proteins and expanded genetic code. The research on protocells is more in combination with the research on molecular-scale motors. The research on DNA synthesis and its commercialisation are also reviewed. As for the perspective on potential future Chinese R&D activities, it will be discussed based on the research capacity and governmental policy.

Synthetic biology in the view of European public funding organisations

We analysed the decisions of major European public funding organisations to fund or not to fund synthetic biology (SB) and related ethical, legal and social implication (ELSI) studies. We investigated the reaction of public organisations in six countries (Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK) towards SB that may influence SB’s further development in Europe. We examined R&D and ELSI communities and their particular funding situation. Our results show that the funding situation for SB varies considerably among the analysed countries, with the UK as the only country with an established funding scheme for R&D and ELSI that successfully integrates these research communities. Elsewhere, we determined a general lack of funding (France), difficulties in funding ELSI work (Switzerland), lack of an R&D community (Austria), too small ELSI communities (France, Switzerland, Netherlands), or difficulties in linking existing communities with available funding sources (Germany), partly due to an unclear SB definition.

Conversion of Biomass into Bioplastics and Their Potential Environmental Impacts

To build our economy on a sustainable basis, we need to find a replacement for fossil carbon as chemical industry feedstocks (Andrady and Neal, 2009). There are growing concerns about current petroleum based production, accumulation of waste in landfills and in natural habitats including the sea, physical problems for wildlife resulting from ingestion or entanglement in plastic, the leaching of chemicals from plastic products and the potential for plastics to transfer chemicals to wildlife and humans (Thompson et al., 2009). Bioplastics, derived from bio-based polymers, may provide a solution. Unlike the chemically synthesized polymers, the bio-based polymers are produced by living organisms, such as plants, fungi or bacteria. Some microorganisms are particularly capable in converting biomass into biopolymers while employing a set of catalytic enzymes. Attempts to transfer biomass to produce industrially useful polymers by traditional biotechnological approaches have obtained only very limited success, suggesting that an effective biomass-conversion requires the synergistic action of complex networks. As an interdisciplinary research field which is a unique combination of life science and engineering, synthetic biology can provide new approaches to redesign biosynthesis pathways for the synergistic actions of biomassconversion and may ultimately lead to cheap and effective processes for conversion of biomass into useful products such as biopolymers. In the following sections of this review, we will give first an introduction on bioplastics and synthetic biology (section 2). The properties of bio-based polymers for bioplastics equal to or better than their chemical synthetic counter parts will be compared. The subfields of synthetic biology related to polymer biosynthesis will be reviewed. In the Section 3, we will focus on synthetic biological approaches to improve the biological system to produce polymers for bioplastics, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). The fourth section then goes on to evaluate the environmental impacts of the synthetic biology derived bioplastics. In this section, we will review the current methods to measure the environmental impacts on bioplastics on greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission, direct or indiret land usage, energy consumptions and waste management, as well as the current regulation guidelines on bioplastics in Europe. And in the last section, we will summarize the perspectives of synthetic biology and bioplastics.

Sustainable Assessment on Using Bacterial Platform to Produce High-Added-Value Products from Berries through Metabolic Engineering

Berries are rich resources of secondary metabolites, particularly known for diverse phenolic compounds. These highly bioactive compounds can be developed into novel nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products, as well as high-added-value natural food additives. Compounds extracted from berries have, e.g., been used as colorants (e.g., anthocyanins) [1]. Meanwhile, some phenolics present in berries are of high added value due to their potential to develop into anticancer drugs (e.g., phenolic acids, flavonols, and flavanols) [2]. The antioxidation properties from berries also make them attractive research subject to develop more efficient nutraceutical products than the current crude extraction formulas (e.g., NutriPhy® Bilberry 100 from Chr. Hansen) [3, 4]. To exploit the full potential of the phenolic molecules from berries, a number of research projects have been conducted ranging from identification of bioactive compounds and elucidation of metabolic pathways (metabolic engineering them into suitable industrial production host cells) to eventually commercial production [3, 5–12].

Fast-growing engineered microbes: new concerns for Gain-of-Function research?

Research on fast-growing microbes holds promise for many industrial applications, including shortening test and trial times in research and development stages and reducing the operation costs for production. Such microbes can be obtained either by selecting naturally occurring variants or via metabolic engineering approaches, either eliminating ‘unnecessary’ or adding necessary pathways affecting growth speed in the cell. Here, we review recent research and development of engineered fast-growing strains in industrial biotechology, with a special focus on vaccine production using (synthetic biology) engineered pathogenic strains. We will discuss whether this represents a security concern and whether the industrial biotech sector needs to pay more attention to issues of Gain-of-Function (GoF) while developing and harnessing these fast-growing microbes. We will also shed a light on the use of in-built biosafety circuits as a way to control the propagation of fast-growing strains, including their capacity to survive in the environment. Other possible GoF concerns raised by the publication of research results in this field will be also addressed. In conclusion, judging from the current development from the field, assessing the potential GoF risks on engineered fast-growing microbes does not lead to a clear generalized outcome. We argue that fast growing strains need to be evaluated in combination with their wild type and engineered characteristics, and require always a case-by-case assessment. Monitoring the progress of the field and proactively raising awareness on the GoF issues among the scientists are important for the further development of the field.