The Diversity of Engineering in Synthetic Biology

Simons, Massimiliano

doi:10.1007/s11569-019-00348-1

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…What kind of insight can we gain about biological organisms and their possibilities by constructing and modifying novel synthetic systems? This is one of the ambiguities of using synthetic biology to understand life (see Simons, 2020). As Evelyn Fox Keller (2002: 288) notes, synthetic organisms "are still simulations, albeit in a different medium."…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring biological possibility through synthetic biology

Ijäs

Koskinen

2021

Euro Jnl Phil Sci

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This paper analyzes the notion of possibility in biology and demonstrates how synthetic biology can provide understanding on the modal dimension of biological systems. Among modal concepts, biological possibility has received surprisingly little explicit treatment in the philosophy of science. The aim of this paper is to argue for the importance of the notion of biological possibility by showing how it provides both a philosophically and biologically fruitful category as well as introducing a new practically grounded way for its assessment. More precisely, we argue that synthetic biology can provide tools to scientifically anchor reasoning about biological possibilities. Two prominent strategies for this are identified and analyzed: the design of functionally new-to-nature systems and the redesign of naturally occurring systems and their parts. These approaches allow synthetic biologists to explore systems that are not normally evolutionarily accessible and draw modal inferences that extend in scope beyond their token realizations. Subsequently, these results in synthetic biology can also be relevant for discussions on evolutionary contingency, providing new methods and insight to the study of various sources of unactualized possibilities in biology.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring biological possibility through synthetic biology

Ijäs

Koskinen

2021

Euro Jnl Phil Sci

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“…But why did such a shift towards exploring biological possibilities, in the form of technoscientific minimal genome research, became a meaningful enterprise? There are numerous accounts of why a general shift toward technoscience has taken place, either based on internalist shifts in science due to the new role of complexity (Bonaccorsi 2010) or external and societal developments, ranging from the rise of the knowledge economy (Lyotard 1979) to the impact of the recent history of engineering and design (Simons 2020). Although shifts in society and in engineering may have been necessary conditions, my claim is that what was crucial for minimal genome research was that questions about minimal genomes became an experimentally meaningful program due to a shift in what one could call its 'experimental system' (Rheinberger, 1997).…”

Section: Synthetic Biology As Technosciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Synthetic biology as a technoscience: The case of minimal genomes and essential genes

Simons

2021

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A

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This article examines how minimal genome research mobilizes philosophical concepts such as minimality and essentiality. Following a historical approach the article aims to uncover what function this terminology plays and which problems are raised by them. Specifically, four historical moments are examined, linked to the work of Harold Morowitz, Mitsuhiro Itaya, Eugene Koonin and Arcady Mushegian, and J. Craig Venter. What this survey shows is a historical shift away from historical questions about life or descriptive questions about specific organisms towards questions that explore biological possibilities: what are possible forms of minimal genomes, regardless of whether they exist(ed) in nature?Moreover, it highlights a fundamental ambiguity at work in minimal genome research between a universality claim and a standardization claim: does a minimal genome refer to the minimal gene set for any organism whatsoever? Or does it refer rather to a gene set that will provide stable, robust and predictable behaviour, suited for biotechnological applications? Two diagnoses are proposed for this ambiguity: a philosophical diagnosis of how minimal genome research either misunderstands the ontology of biological entities or philosophically misarticulates scientific practice. Secondly, a historical diagnosis that suggests that this ambiguity is part of a broader shift towards technoscience.

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“…Other practices include the "scaling-up" of blood manufacture: producing vast quantities of red blood cells through the culture of haemopoeitic stem cells derived from adult donated blood, in order to conduct human clinical trials timetabled to start in 2020. 4 During my residency, I spent time in the biomedical laboratory, standing, sensing and observing the tiny movements of these cultivated red blood cells in their large glass flasks of iridescent liquid: scarlet, claret, carmine, crimson and cardinal hues, all infused with a golden shimmer. Prior to developing my art practice, I worked in media and film production, and this experience continues to inform my artist research.…”

Section: Nano-ethics In Artist Research: Tiny Instances In Posthuman mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The attempts at translation and its failure that are part and parcel of aesthetic engagement with the natural and social sciences are also integral to synthetic biology itself. Second, as Massimiliano Simons [4] points out, the history of engineering is replete with the self-understanding of engineers as close to the arts and enacting the character of Metis, goddess of magical cunning, who somehow tricks nature, hence the affinity between synthetic biology and design thinking (e.g. protein design).…”

Section: Introduction (By Darian Meacham)mentioning

confidence: 99%

BrisSynBio Art-Science Dossier

Fannin

Connor²,

Roden

et al. 2020

Nanoethics

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Finding avenues for collaboration and engagement between the arts and the sciences (natural and social) was a central theme of investigation for the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and Public Engagement programme at BrisSynBio, a BBSRC/ EPSRC Synthetic Biology Research Centre that is now part of the Bristol BioDesign Institute at University of Bristol (UK). The reflections and experiments that appear in this dossier are a sample of these investigations and are contributed by Maria Fannin, Katy Connor and David Roden. Darian Meacham coordinated and introduces the dossier.

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The Diversity of Engineering in Synthetic Biology

Cited by 8 publications

References 78 publications

Exploring biological possibility through synthetic biology

Exploring biological possibility through synthetic biology

Synthetic biology as a technoscience: The case of minimal genomes and essential genes

BrisSynBio Art-Science Dossier

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