The Pros And Cons Of Synthetic Biology?

Synthetic Biology

The introduction of synthetic biology, explained as "the design and construction of new biological parts, devices, and systems, and the re-design of existing, natural biological systems for useful purposes" ("Synthetic Biology") has almost taken over the field of biology. This branch of biology has become fairly new with the technological era that has every country funding money towards their science departments. Synthetic biology has many sections under it because of it 's broad coverage. It can affects medicine, the economy, global health, consumerism, security, the environment and much more. One big controversial issue under synthetic biology is the thought that because new strains and types of DNA are being introduced

Yes, there would be many potential pros: genetically engineering for medicine that could cure illnesses that have yet to be figured out, genetically engineering for environmental benefit that could potentially reverse pollution, and genetically engineering for the chemical industry that could create biofuels instead of destroying the environment for them. However, I believe the cons outweigh the pros. Yes, there would be some serious advantages for synthetic biology but on the opposite end of the spectrum, these synthetic advances could just as well turn out the complete opposite that we expect them to. As a scientist, if you are trying to get cells to perform a specific task, there is a chance that cells could mutate or not follow normal biological procedure. "The result is that every new generation is slightly different than the one before" (Locke). Cancer cells are an example of this unpredictability. Cells are not organized so reacting with something that they shouldn 't is a big risk. An even bigger risk would be if these cells somehow got into the wild where the product is unpredictable. However, there are some organisms created through synthetic biology that can only survive in the lab. "It 's also possible that scientists could program a kill switch that would turn on at a certain point. (So, for instance, a cell designed to kill cancer could be programmed to self-destruct after it 's done its job)" (Locke), but this is still far in the future and not