Synthetic Biology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Davies Jamie A

Author:Davies, Jamie A.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2018-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

Barriers to commercial application

A recurring theme of this chapter has been the description of systems that have been shown to work in laboratories but that are not yet changing the world through real application. There are two reasons for this, one economic and one social. Biofuel production is inhibited chiefly by economics: crudely, as long as fossil fuels are cheaper in terms of direct purchase cost, there is no incentive to invest in systems such as algal biofuel production in deserts. Pollution detection and bioremediation applications are delayed not by economics (which generally favours them), but by highly restrictive regulations designed to ensure that genetically engineered organisms do not get loose and thrive in the general environment. Containment is difficult, especially in the context of remediating vast tracts of land or literal lakes of contaminated water. The applications described in this chapter may be technically rather simple examples of synthetic biology, but, paradoxically, they may be among the slowest applications to make a real difference to the way we live. The medical applications in the Chapter 4 are more complicated to build, but, because they are used only in highly controlled laboratory environments or operate in mammalian cells that cannot live independently in the environment, they are overtaking the simpler environmental applications and are seeing real-world application that is already saving lives.

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