Provenance and risk in transfer of biological materials

Nielsen, Jane; Bubela, Tania; Chalmers, Don; Johns, Amber; Kahl, Linda J.; Kamens, Joanne; Lawson, Charles; Liddicoat, John; McWhirter, Rebekah; Monotti, Ann; Scheibner, James; Whitton, Tess; Nicol, Dianne

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2006031

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…This has led to a vast library of domesticated DNA parts available for use. As a consequence of the increased need for sharing and exchange, the universal biological material transfer agreement has been revised (14) and an open material transfer agreement is being proposed to facilitate and expedite the sharing and exchange of plasmids (15). Further, the need for IP-free DNA assembly systems to enable open access to DNA fabrication has been addressed, as in the case of the Loop assembly method developed previously by the authors (10).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Universal Loop assembly (uLoop): open, efficient, and species-agnostic DNA fabrication

Pollak

Matute

Núñez

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Standardised Type IIS DNA assembly methods are becoming essential for biological engineering and research. Although a 'common syntax' has been proposed to enable higher interoperability between DNA libraries, Golden Gate (GG) -based assembly systems remain specific to target organisms. Furthermore, these GG assembly systems become laborious and unnecessarily complicated beyond the assembly of 4 transcriptional units. Here, we describe "universal Loop" (uLoop) assembly, a simple system based on Loop assembly that enables hierarchical fabrication of large DNA constructs (> 30 kb) for any organism of choice. uLoop comprises two sets of four plasmids that are iteratively used as odd and even levels to compile DNA elements in an exponential manner (4 n-1 ). The elements required for transformation/maintenance in target organisms are also assembled as standardised parts, enabling customisation of host-specific plasmids. Thus, this species-agnostic method decouples efficiency of assembly from the stability of vectors in the target organism. As a proof-of-concept, we show the engineering of multi-gene expression vectors in diatoms, yeast, plants and bacteria. These resources will become available through the OpenMTA for unrestricted sharing and open-access. !

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Universal Loop assembly (uLoop): open, efficient, and species-agnostic DNA fabrication

Pollak

Matute

Núñez

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…The issue of intellectual property (IP) can potentially affect several aspects of pathway assembly, particularly the use of parts, vector backbones and standards (Nielsen et al, 2018). An IP expert meeting (Minssen et al, 2015) made six recommendations for the synthetic biology community in this regard, such as encouraging scientists to employ tools that are unencumbered with IP rights when developing foundational technologies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combinatorial metabolic pathway assembly approaches and toolkits for modular assembly

Young

Haines

Storch

et al. 2021

Metabolic Engineering

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Synthetic Biology is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field that is primarily built upon foundational advances in molecular biology combined with engineering design principles such as modularity and interoperability. The field considers living systems as programmable at the genetic level and has been defined by the development of new platform technologies and methodological advances. A key concept driving the field is the Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle which provides a systematic framework for building new biological systems. One major application area for synthetic biology is biosynthetic pathway engineering that requires the modular assembly of different genetic regulatory elements and biosynthetic enzymes. In this review we provide an overview of modular DNA assembly and describe and compare the plethora of in vitro and in vivo assembly methods for combinatorial pathway engineering. Considerations for part design and methods for enzyme balancing are also presented, and we briefly discuss alternatives to intracellular pathway assembly including microbial consortia and cell-free systems for biosynthesis. Finally, we describe computational tools and automation for pathway design and assembly and argue that a deeper understanding of the many different variables of genetic design, pathway regulation and cellular metabolism will allow more predictive pathway design and engineering.

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“…The ethical, legal and social issues raised by this rush to patent foundational genome editing tools have also been examined (Sherkow, 2017;Feeney et al, 2018). We are also seeing the emergence more cooperative strategies, including open licensing of intellectual property and sharing of resources for genome editing research (Nielsen et al, 2018;Nicol and Nielsen, 2021). Even more interestingly, some patent holders are using intellectual property licences as a tool to foster ethical conduct (Guerrini et al, 2017), including the Broad Institute, which, through Editas Medicine Inc, are using licences that exclude ethically questionable uses, such as gene drives and germline editing (Broad Institute 2014).…”

Section: Commercialisation and Intellectual Propertymentioning

confidence: 99%

Points to consider in the development of national human genome editing policy

Nicol¹,

Niemeyer²,

Paxton³

et al. 2023

Camb. prisms Precis. med.

Self Cite

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CRISPR and other genome editing technologies have the potential to transform the lives of people affected by genetic disorders for the better. However, it is widely recognised that they also raise large ethical and policy questions. The focus of this article is on how national genome editing policy might be developed in ways that give proper recognition to these big questions. The article first considers some of the regulatory challenges involved in dealing these big ethical, social questions, and also economic issues. It then reviews the outcomes of a series of major reports on genome editing from international expert bodies, with particular focus on the work of the World Health Organisation's expert committee on genome editing. The article then summarises five policy themes that have emerged from this review of the international reports together with a review of other literature, and the authors' engagement with members of the Australian public and with a wide range of experts across multiple disciplines. Each theme is accompanied by one to three pointers for policy makers to consider in developing genome editing policy.

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Provenance and risk in transfer of biological materials

Cited by 7 publications

References 12 publications

Universal Loop assembly (uLoop): open, efficient, and species-agnostic DNA fabrication

Universal Loop assembly (uLoop): open, efficient, and species-agnostic DNA fabrication

Combinatorial metabolic pathway assembly approaches and toolkits for modular assembly

Points to consider in the development of national human genome editing policy

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