*STS Circle at Harvard* [image: samuelevansresear/7D21F2C9.gif] * * *Emma Frow* *Program on Science, Technology, and Society, Harvard * * * on
*Making Big Promises Come True? Articulating and Realizing the Value of Synthetic Biology* Monday, October 31st 12:15-2:00 p.m. 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 100, Room 106 [image: samuelevansresear/7D21F2C9.gif] Lunch is provided if you RSVP. Please RSVP to sts <[email protected]>@hks.harvard.edu<[email protected]>by 5pm Thursday, October 27th. * * *Abstract:* Synthetic biology has gained visibility over the past decade as an approach to biotechnology that prioritizes the use of engineering principles and practices to design and make new organisms. Synthetic biologists aspire to turn biology into an engineering discipline, and this aspiration is associated with big promises — not least a new ‘industrial revolution’ in the use of biological organisms for purposes including drug production, industrial processing, environmental remediation, and personalized medicine. The ‘BioBrickTM standard biological part’ epitomizes this engineering approach to biology; named with explicit reference to Lego® bricks, BioBricks are standardized DNA components designed to enable easy and reliable assembly of genetic ‘circuits’ for engineering new organisms. Over the past decade a growing international community of synthetic biologists has been working to develop technologies, standards, measurement tools, and infrastructure to support the creation and curation of collections of modular, interchangeable genetic parts. In practice, several tensions are becoming apparent as this mechanistic and engineering-led vision of biotechnology is articulated with respect to more biologically grounded understandings and practices for working with living organisms. In this seminar I will draw on my research on standards development in synthetic biology to explore some of the frictions and ambiguities involved in trying to standardize life according to engineering ideals. *Biography*: Emma Frow is a Research Fellow with the Program on Science, Technology & Society at the Kennedy School of Government, and a Lecturer in Science & Technology Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Emma originally trained as a bioscientist, and has a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge. After her PhD, she worked at the journal Nature for two years before moving to the ESRC Genomics Policy & Research Forum in Edinburgh. Emma completed an MSc in STS at Edinburgh in 2009. Her research interests revolve around processes of standard-setting in domains including scientific publishing and synthetic biology. Since 2008 she has helped to run the UK Synthetic Biology Standards Network, a multidisciplinary research network funded by the UK Research Councils. She is also part of a new EU project on standards development in synthetic biology, which will run from 2012-2015. A complete list of STS Circle at Harvard events can be found on our website: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/ Follow us on Facebook: STS@Harvard <http://www.facebook.com/HarvardSTS>
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