The practices of synthetic biology are being integrated into ‘multiscale’ designs enabling two-way communication across organic and inorganic information substrates in biological, digital and cyber-physical system integrations. Novel applications of ‘bio-informational’ engineering will arise in environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, precision medicine and next-generation biomanufacturing. Potential developments include sentinel plants for environmental monitoring and autonomous bioreactors that respond to biosensor signaling. As bio-informational understanding progresses, both natural and engineered biological systems will need to be reimagined as cyber-physical architectures. We propose that a multiple length scale taxonomy will assist in rationalizing and enabling this transformative development in engineering biology.

Impact assessment is embedded in many national and international research rating systems. Most applications use the Research Impact Pathway to track inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes of an invention or initiative to assess impact beyond scholarly contributions to an academic research field (i.e., benefits to environment, society, economy and culture). Existing approaches emphasise easy to attribute ‘hard’ impacts, and fail to include a range of ‘soft’ impacts that are less easy to attribute, yet are often a dominant part of the impact mix. Here, we develop an inclusive 3-part impact mapping approach. We demonstrate its application using an environmental initiative.

A Global Forum on Synthetic Biology is needed to engage policymakers with practitioners across borders at the highest level. The international community needs a global confidence-building measure focused on discussing policy futures for the age of engineering biology.

The creative destruction caused by the coronavirus pandemic is yielding immense opportunity for collaborative innovation networks. The confluence of biosciences, information sciences, and the engineering of biology, is unveiling promising bioinformational futures for a vibrant and sustainable bioeconomy. Bioinformational engineering, underpinned by DNA reading, writing, and editing technologies, has become a beacon of opportunity in a world paralysed by uncertainty. This article draws on lessons from the current pandemic and previous agricultural blights, and explores bioinformational research directions aimed at future-proofing the grape and wine industry against biological shocks from global blights and climate change. The shock and awe of the pandemic's creative destructionThe years of global pandemic outbreaks, 1346, 1918, and 2020, loom large in history because these low-probability, high-impact disasters have devastating impacts on people's lives with tranquilising effects on society as a whole. In this regard, the 2020 coronavirus outbreak was no less damaging than previous once-in-a-century pandemics, global blights (see Glossary), and other catastrophes. This paper explores the future of grape and wine biotechnology with future global biological shocks in mind. These shocks include both the potential for global blights but also the disruptive potential of climate change. It is important to note that these two shocks combine in a layered manner; temperature change combined with existing land use patterns can contribute to the likelihood of a new global blight emerging. COVID-19 exemplifies the power of a global biological shock. The virus has infected millions of people and reset the trajectory of macro political, economic, sociological, technological, legal, and environmental (PESTLE) forces that shape the modern world. Such powerful forces are of course not solely the province of human biological shocks, and global blights harbour similar levels of disruptive potential. This paper explores the emerging science and technologies that might mitigate the risks of a global blight in the grape and wine sector. HighlightsUncertainty caused by pandemics, global blights, and climate change, tends to heighten the focus on how biotechnological advances can mitigate challenges to public safety, cyberbio resilience, environmental sustainability, and bioeconomic security.Convergence of cyberbio technologies and high-throughput automation in biofoundries offers future-shaping bioinformational engineering opportunities with transformational potential to the wine industry.Consumer preferences, biosecurity, and bioethical considerations, must guide research directions and adoption of new bioinformational engineering technologies at the levels of both problem selection and experimental design.

Synthetic biology and artificial intelligence naturally converge in the biofoundry. Navigating the ethical and societal issues of the biofoundry's potential remains a major challenge.

Some years inspire more hindsight reflection and future-gazing than others. This is even more so in 2020 with its evocation of perfect vision and the landmark ring to it. However, no futurist can reliably predict what the world will look like the next time that a year’s first two digits will match the second two digits—a numerical pattern that only occurs once in a century. As we leap into a new decade, amid uncertainties triggered by unforeseen global events—such as the outbreak of a worldwide pandemic, the accompanying economic hardship, and intensifying geopolitical tensions—it is important to note the blistering pace of 21st century technological developments indicate that while hindsight might be 20/20, foresight is 50/50. The history of science shows us that imaginative ideas, research excellence, and collaborative innovation can, for example, significantly contribute to the economic, cultural, social, and environmental recovery of a post-COVID-19 world. This article reflects on a history of yeast research to indicate the potential that arises from advances in science, and how this can contribute to the ongoing recovery and development of human society. Future breakthroughs in synthetic genomics are likely to unlock new avenues of impactful discoveries and solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges.

The convergence of the life sciences with the information and computing sciences is beginning to generate novel security vulnerabilities. As scientific and technological advances occur, new security vulnerabilities are discovered and new methods for exploiting those vulnerabilities are developed. Novel cyber-biological capabilities are likely to enable technologically sophisticated states to develop new methods of grey zone warfare. This article provides context to this multidisciplinary area of research by reviewing the emerging field of cyberbiosecurity for its relevance to developments in grey zone warfare. This article then analyses two long-term trends that have influenced the development of contemporary cyber-biological capabilities. These two trends are advances in novel uses of biology and advances in computing, automation and biodesign. The capability to exploit vulnerabilities unique to the links between cyber and biological systems differs significantly from previous security concerns noted for biotechnology and the life sciences. Scholars and practitioners of international relations will need to develop an understanding of engineering biology and the bioeconomy in order to forecast methods of grey zone manoeuvre that rely on cyber-biological capabilities. This article offers an entry point for the scholar and practitioner so that they may bring their own disciplinary lens to the issue of grey zone ambiguity and cyberbiosecurity.

No abstract