Project Scope

Under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), CSTL and the Board on Life Sciences (BLS) organized, in conjunction with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Royal Society (RS), Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), three symposia on synthetic biology in 2011-2012. The symposia built on a successful 2009 collaboration between the Royal Society, NAS/NAE, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) when these organizations partnered to sponsor an international symposium in Washington, D.C. entitled, Opportunities and Challenges in the Emerging Field of Synthetic Biology (http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/stl/PGA_050738).  Following from that meeting, the NAS/NAE and the RS reached an agreement with the RAE and the CAS and CAE to hold three symposia – one in the U.K., one in China, and one in the U.S. – during 2011-2012.

The first symposium, in the U.K., provided an overview of synthetic biology and developments in the past 5 years; an estimate of what might be achieved in the next 5, 10, and 25 year periods; the requirements and resources necessary for realizing value creation from synthetic biology; and the necessary conditions for an enabling environment.  The focus of the symposium in China was the scientific and technical challenges that must be met to enable further development of the field.  The U.S. symposium focused on next-generation tools, platforms, and infrastructure necessary for continued progress in synthetic biology, and the associated policy implications.

An individually-authored summary of the three symposia will be published as an NRC report.  

Meetings & Events

June 12-13, 2012
Washington, DC

Agenda
Video

October 12-14, 2011
Shanghai, China

Agenda

April 13-14, 2011
London, England

Agenda

Reports

An individually-authored summary of the three symposia will be published as an NRC report. 

MEMBERSHIP

Drew Endy (Chair)
Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
Stanford University 
President
The BioBricks Foundation

Michael Elowitz
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Associate Professor of Biology, Bioengineering, and Applied Physics
California Institute of Technology 

Richard Johnson
CEO
Global Helix LLC
Counsel and Senior Partner (Ret.)
Arnold & Porter, LLP

Wendell Lim
Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology
University of California, San Francisco

Pamela Silver
Professor of Systems Biology 
Harvard Medical School

Sponsors

This project is sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.