General Article The synthetic biology revolution is now – here’s what that means

Topic Selected: Biotech and Bioethics Book Volume: 352
This article is 5 years old. Click here to view the latest articles for this topic.

The synthetic biology revolution is now – here's what that means

Clinical trials using immune cells engineered through synthetic biology have been shown to push some patients into remission from blood cancer. from www.shutterstock.com

Claudia Vickers, CSIRO and Ian Small, University of Western Australia

We live in an era where biotechnology, information technology, manufacturing and automation all come together to form a capability called synthetic biology.

Technological revolutions are significant because they shape the future of social and cultural development – as is evident for the industrial revolution, the “green revolution”, and the information technology revolution.

Now synthetic biology is shaping up to be the dominant technology of this century, and Australia has made clear moves to be on board.


Read more: How to grow crops on Mars if we are to live on the red planet


What is synthetic biology?

Synthetic biology is the design and construction of new, standardised ...

Would you like to see the rest of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?

Sign up now for an immediate no obligation FREE TRIAL and view the entire collection