Tracking the emergence of synthetic biology

The view of synthetic biology in the field of ethics: a thematic systematic review

Synthetic biology is designing and creating biological tools and systems for useful purposes. It uses knowledge from biology, such as biotechnology, molecular biology, biophysics, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and other disciplines, such as engineering, mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering. It is recognized as both a branch of science and technology. The scope of synthetic biology ranges from modifying existing organisms to gain new properties to creating a living organism from non-living components. Synthetic biology has many applications in important fields such as energy, chemistry, medicine, environment, agriculture, national security, and nanotechnology. The development of synthetic biology also raises ethical and social debates. This article aims to identify the place of ethics in synthetic biology. In this context, the theoretical ethical debates on synthetic biology from the 2000s to 2020, when the development of synthetic biology was relatively faster, were analyzed using the systematic review method. Based on the results of the analysis, the main ethical problems related to the field, problems that are likely to arise, and suggestions for solutions to these problems are included. The data collection phase of the study included a literature review conducted according to protocols, including planning, screening, selection and evaluation. The analysis and synthesis process was carried out in the next stage, and the main themes related to synthetic biology and ethics were identified. Searches were conducted in Web of Science, Scopus, PhilPapers and MEDLINE databases. Theoretical research articles and reviews published in peer-reviewed journals until the end of 2020 were included in the study. The language of publications was English. According to preliminary data, 1,453 publications were retrieved from the four databases. Considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 58 publications were analyzed in the study. Ethical debates on synthetic biology have been conducted on various issues. In this context, the ethical debates in this article were examined under five themes: the moral status of synthetic biology products, synthetic biology and the meaning of life, synthetic biology and metaphors, synthetic biology and knowledge, and expectations, concerns, and problem solving: risk versus caution.

Epistemology of synthetic biology: a new theoretical framework based on its potential objects and objectives

Synthetic biology is a new research field which attempts to understand, modify, and create new biological entities by adopting a modular and systemic conception of the living organisms. The development of synthetic biology has generated a pluralism of different approaches, bringing together a set of heterogeneous practices and conceptualizations from various disciplines, which can lead to confusion within the synthetic biology community as well as with other biological disciplines. I present in this manuscript an epistemological analysis of synthetic biology in order to better define this new discipline in terms of objects of study and specific objectives. First, I present and analyze the principal research projects developed at the foundation of synthetic biology, in order to establish an overview of the practices in this new emerging discipline. Then, I analyze an important scientometric study on synthetic biology to complete this overview. Afterwards, considering this analysis, I suggest a three-level classification of the object of study for synthetic biology (which are different kinds of living entities that can be built in the laboratory), based on three successive criteria: structural hierarchy, structural origin, functional origin. Finally, I propose three successively linked objectives in which synthetic biology can contribute (where the achievement of one objective led to the development of the other): interdisciplinarity collaboration (between natural, artificial, and theoretical sciences), knowledge of natural living entities (past, present, future, and alternative), pragmatic definition of the concept of "living" (that can be used by biologists in different contexts). Considering this new theoretical framework, based on its potential objects and objectives, I take the position that synthetic biology has not only the potential to develop its own new approach (which includes methods, objects, and objectives), distinct from other subdisciplines in biology, but also the ability to develop new knowledge on living entities.

Advancing reproducibility can ease the 'hard truths' of synthetic biology

Reproducibility has been identified as an outstanding challenge in science, and the field of synthetic biology is no exception. Meeting this challenge is critical to allow the transformative technological capabilities emerging from this field to reach their full potential to benefit the society. We discuss the current state of reproducibility in synthetic biology and how improvements can address some of the central shortcomings in the field. We argue that the successful adoption of reproducibility as a routine aspect of research and development requires commitment spanning researchers and relevant institutions via education, incentivization and investment in related infrastructure. The urgency of this topic pervades synthetic biology as it strives to advance fundamental insights and unlock new capabilities for safe, secure and scalable applications of biotechnology. Graphical Abstract.

Spaceflight Induces Strength Decline in Caenorhabditis elegans

Background: Understanding and countering the well-established negative health consequences of spaceflight remains a primary challenge preventing safe deep space exploration. Targeted/personalized therapeutics are at the forefront of space medicine strategies, and cross-species molecular signatures now define the 'typical' spaceflight response. However, a lack of direct genotype-phenotype associations currently limits the robustness and, therefore, the therapeutic utility of putative mechanisms underpinning pathological changes in flight. Methods: We employed the worm Caenorhabditis elegans as a validated model of space biology, combined with 'NemaFlex-S' microfluidic devices for assessing animal strength production as one of the most reproducible physiological responses to spaceflight. Wild-type and dys-1 (BZ33) strains (a Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) model for comparing predisposed muscle weak animals) were cultured on the International Space Station in chemically defined media before loading second-generation gravid adults into NemaFlex-S devices to assess individual animal strength. These same cultures were then frozen on orbit before returning to Earth for next-generation sequencing transcriptomic analysis. Results: Neuromuscular strength was lower in flight versus ground controls (16.6% decline, p < 0.05), with dys-1 significantly more (23% less strength, p < 0.01) affected than wild types. The transcriptional gene ontology signatures characterizing both strains of weaker animals in flight strongly corroborate previous results across species, enriched for upregulated stress response pathways and downregulated mitochondrial and cytoskeletal processes. Functional gene cluster analysis extended this to implicate decreased neuronal function, including abnormal calcium handling and acetylcholine signaling, in space-induced strength declines under the predicted control of UNC-89 and DAF-19 transcription factors. Finally, gene modules specifically altered in dys-1 animals in flight again cluster to neuronal/neuromuscular pathways, suggesting strength loss in DMD comprises a strong neuronal component that predisposes these animals to exacerbated strength loss in space. Conclusions: Highly reproducible gene signatures are strongly associated with space-induced neuromuscular strength loss across species and neuronal changes in calcium/acetylcholine signaling require further study. These results promote targeted medical efforts towards and provide an in vivo model for safely sending animals and people into deep space in the near future.

Examining expertise: Synthetic biology experts' perceptions of risk, benefit, and the public for research and applications regulation

Scientific experts can play an important role in decision-making surrounding policy for technical and value-laden issues, often in contexts that directly affect lay publics. Yet little is known about what characterizes scientific experts who want lay public involvement in decision-making. In this study, we examine how synthetic biology experts' perceptions of risks, benefits, and ambivalence for synthetic biology relate to views of lay publics, deference to scientific authority, and regulations. We analyzed survey data of researchers in the United States, who published academic articles relating to synthetic biology from 2000 to 2015. Scientific experts who see less risk and are more deferent to scientific authority appear to favor a more closed system in which regulations are sufficient, citizens should not be involved, and scientists know best. Conversely, scientific experts who see more potential for risk and see the public as bringing a valuable perspective appear to favor a more open, inclusive system.

Ethical and social insights into synthetic biology: predicting research fronts in the post-COVID-19 era

As a revolutionary biological science and technology, synthetic biology has already spread its influence from natural sciences to humanities and social sciences by introducing biosafety, biosecurity, and ethical issues to society. The current study aims to elaborate the intellectual bases and research front of the synthetic biology field in the sphere of philosophy, ethics, and social sciences, with knowledge mapping and bibliometric methods. The literature records from the Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts & Humanities Citation Index in the Web of Science Core Collection from 1982 to 2021 were collected and analyzed to illustrate the intellectual structure of philosophical, ethical, and social research of synthetic biology. This study profiled the hotspots of research focus on its governance, philosophical and ethical concerns, and relevant technologies. This study offers clues and enlightenment for the stakeholders and researchers to follow the progress of this emerging discipline and technology and to understand the cutting-edge ideas and future form of this field, which takes on greater significance in the post-COVID-19 era.

Synthetic biology-inspired cell engineering in diagnosis, treatment, and drug development

The fast-developing synthetic biology (SB) has provided many genetic tools to reprogram and engineer cells for improved performance, novel functions, and diverse applications. Such cell engineering resources can play a critical role in the research and development of novel therapeutics. However, there are certain limitations and challenges in applying genetically engineered cells in clinical practice. This literature review updates the recent advances in biomedical applications, including diagnosis, treatment, and drug development, of SB-inspired cell engineering. It describes technologies and relevant examples in a clinical and experimental setup that may significantly impact the biomedicine field. At last, this review concludes the results with future directions to optimize the performances of synthetic gene circuits to regulate the therapeutic activities of cell-based tools in specific diseases.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Research on Bacterial Persisters

Background

In the past two decades, the surge of research on bacterial persisters has been inspired as increasingly concerning about the frequent failure of antibiotics treatment. This study was aimed at presenting a bibliometric and visualized analysis of relative publications on bacterial persisters, which offered insights into the development and research trends of this field.

Methods

The Web of Science Core Collection and Ovid MEDLINE databases were utilized to retrieve relevant publications on bacterial persisters from 2001 to 2021. After manual selection, data including titles, authors, journals, author keywords, addresses, the number of citations, and publication years were subsequently extracted. The data analysis and visual mapping were conducted with Excel, SPSS, R studio, and VOSviewer.

Results

In this study, 1,903 relevant publications on bacterial persisters were included. During 2001-2021, there was an exponential growth in the quantity of publications. It was found that these studies were conducted by 7,182 authors from 74 different countries. The USA led the scientific production with the highest total number of publications (859) and citation frequency (52,022). The Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy was the most influential journal with 113 relevant publications. The cooccurrence analysis revealed that studies on bacterial persisters focused on four aspects: "the role of persisters in biofilms," "clinical persistent infection," "anti-persister treatment," and "mechanism of persister formation."

Conclusion

In the past two decades, the global field of bacterial persisters has significantly increased. The USA was the leading country in this field. Mechanistic studies continued to be the future hotspots, which may be helpful to adopt new strategies against persisters and solve the problem of chronic infection in the clinic.

Immunoregulatory framework and the role of miRNA in the pathogenesis of NSCLC - A systematic review

With a 5-year survival rate of only 15%, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common kind of lung carcinoma and the cause of millions of deaths annually, has drawn attention. Numerous variables, such as disrupted signaling caused by somatic mutations in the EGFR-mediated RAS/RAF/MAPK, PI3K/AKT, JAK/STAT signaling cascade, supports tumour survival in one way or another. Here, the tumour microenvironment significantly contributes to the development of cancer by thwarting the immune response. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are critical regulators of gene expression that can function as oncogenes or oncosuppressors. They have a major influence on the occurrence and prognosis of NSCLC. Though, a myriad number of therapies are available and many are being clinically tested, still the drug resistance, its adverse effect and toxicity leading towards fatality cannot be ruled out. In this review, we tried to ascertain the missing links in between perturbed EGFR signaling, miRNAs favouring tumorigenesis and the autophagy mechanism. While connecting all the aforementioned points multiple associations were set, which can be targeted in order to combat NSCLC. Here, we tried illuminating designing synthetically engineered circuits with the toggle switches that might lay a prototype for better therapeutic paradigm.

What semantic analysis can tell us about long term trends in the global STI policy agenda

The scope, complexity and the "volume" of knowledge accumulated render producing an overview of the core themes of science, technology and innovation policies difficult. Reviews of this policy domain mostly either refer to general issues without deep immersion into details or focus on specific narrower aspects. The paper uses semantic analysis to identify major themes of science, technology and innovation policies over the last three decades and to trace their evolution towards current policy setting. We use semantic tools for processing and analysing documents produced by one of the major and highly reputable international expert bodies, the OECD Working Party on Technology and Innovation Policy. We show that selected themes remain in the mainstream even though being affected by regular policy adjustments and refinements and which disappear or appear with new challenges and expected solutions. Other themes appear niche or exotic themes which are under discussion for some time only.

Optimal Design of Synthetic DNA Sequences Without Unwanted Binding Sites

Synthesizing DNA molecules by design has become an essential tool in molecular biology and is expected to become ubiquitous in the coming decade. Successful design of a synthetic DNA molecule often requires satisfying multiple objectives, some of which may conflict with others. One particularly important objective is the elimination of unwanted protein binding sites, which may interfere with the desired function of the synthesized molecule. While most design tools offer this fundamental capability, they do not follow a systematic approach that guarantees elimination of all unwanted sites whenever a feasible solution exists. Furthermore, the algorithms these tools use (when published) are often quite naive and inefficient. We present a formal description of the binding site elimination problem and suggest several efficient algorithms that eliminate unwanted patterns with minimum interference to the desired function of the synthesized sequence. These algorithms are simple, efficient, and flexible and, therefore, can be easily incorporated in all existing DNA design tools, enhancing their design capabilities.

Sequence-Based Searching for SynBioHub Using VSEARCH

The ability to search for a part by its sequence is crucial for a large repository of parts. Prior to this work, however, this was not possible on SynBioHub. Sequence-based search is now integrated into SynBioHub, allowing users to find a part by a sequence provided in plain text or a supported file format. This sequence-based search feature is accessible to users via SynBioHub's web interface, or programmatically through its API. The core implementation of the tool uses VSEARCH, an open source, global alignment search tool, and it is integrated into SBOLExplorer, an open source distributed search engine used by SynBioHub. We present a new approach to scoring part similarity using SBOLExplorer, which takes into account both the popularity and percentage match of parts.

Mechanobiology of immune cells: Messengers, receivers and followers in leishmaniasis aiding synthetic devices

Cytokines are influential molecules which can direct cells behavior. In this review, cytokines are referred as messengers, immune cells which respond to cytokine stimulus are referred as receivers and the immune cells which gets modulated due to their plasticity induced by infectious pathogen leishmania, are referred as followers. The advantage of plasticity of cells is taken by the parasite to switch them from parasite eliminating form to parasite survival favoring form through a process called as reciprocity which is undergone by cytokines, wherein pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory switch occur rendering immune cell population to switch their phenotype. Detailed study of this switch can help in identification of important targets which can help in restoring the phenotype to parasite eliminating form and this can be done through synthetic circuit, finding its wider applicability in therapeutics.

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Cytokines as messengers for governing reciprocity in infection.

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Leishmania induces reciprocity modulating the immune cells plasticity.

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Reciprocity of cytokines identifies important target for therapeutics.

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Therapeutic targets aiding the design of synthetic devices to combat infection.

Mapping technological innovation dynamics in artificial intelligence domains: Evidence from a global patent analysis

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a technology at the center of many political, economic, and societal debates. This paper formulates a new AI patent search strategy and applies this to provide a landscape analysis of AI innovation dynamics and technology evolution. The paper uses patent analyses, network analyses, and source path link count algorithms to examine AI spatial and temporal trends, cooperation features, cross-organization knowledge flow and technological routes. Results indicate a growing yet concentrated, non-collaborative and multi-path development and protection profile for AI patenting, with cross-organization knowledge flows based mainly on interorganizational knowledge citation links.

Tracking developments in artificial intelligence research: constructing and applying a new search strategy

Artificial intelligence, as an emerging and multidisciplinary domain of research and innovation, has attracted growing attention in recent years. Delineating the domain composition of artificial intelligence is central to profiling and tracking its development and trajectories. This paper puts forward a bibliometric definition for artificial intelligence which can be readily applied, including by researchers, managers, and policy analysts. Our approach starts with benchmark records of artificial intelligence captured by using a core keyword and specialized journal search. We then extract candidate terms from high frequency keywords of benchmark records, refine keywords and complement with the subject category “artificial intelligence”. We assess our search approach by comparing it with other three recent search strategies of artificial intelligence, using a common source of articles from the Web of Science. Using this source, we then profile patterns of growth and international diffusion of scientific research in artificial intelligence in recent years, identify top research sponsors in funding artificial intelligence and demonstrate how diverse disciplines contribute to the multidisciplinary development of artificial intelligence. We conclude with implications for search strategy development and suggestions of lines for further research.

Synthetic Biology Knowledge System

The Synthetic Biology Knowledge System (SBKS) is an instance of the SynBioHub repository that includes text and data information that has been mined from papers published in ACS Synthetic Biology. This paper describes the SBKS curation framework that is being developed to construct the knowledge stored in this repository. The text mining pipeline performs automatic annotation of the articles using natural language processing techniques to identify salient content such as key terms, relationships between terms, and main topics. The data mining pipeline performs automatic annotation of the sequences extracted from the supplemental documents with the genetic parts used in them. Together these two pipelines link genetic parts to papers describing the context in which they are used. Ultimately, SBKS will reduce the time necessary for synthetic biologists to find the information necessary to complete their designs.

Advancing Undergraduate Synthetic Biology Education: Insights from a Canadian iGEM Student Perspective

The last two decades have seen vigorous activity in synthetic biology research and ever-increasing applications of its technologies. However, pedagogical research pertaining to teaching synthetic biology is scarce, especially when compared to other science and engineering disciplines. Within Canada there are only three universities that offer synthetic biology programs; two of which are at the undergraduate level. Rather than take place in formal academic settings, many Canadian undergraduate students are introduced to synthetic biology through participation in the annual International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. Although the iGEM competition has had a transformative impact on synthetic biology training in other nations, the impact in Canada has been relatively modest. Consequently, the iGEM competition is still a major setting for synthetic biology education in Canada. To promote further development of synthetic biology education, we surveyed undergraduate students from the Canadian iGEM design teams of 2019. We extracted insights from these data using qualitative analysis to provide recommendations for best teaching practices in synthetic biology undergraduate education, which we describe through our proposed Framework for Transdisciplinary Synthetic Biology Education (FTSBE).

Topic analysis of academic disciplines based on prolific and authoritative researchers

Purpose

The paper aims to explore whether topic analysis (identification of the core contents, trends and topic distribution in the target field) can be performed using a more low-cost and easily applicable method that relies on a small dataset, and how we can obtain this small dataset based on the features of the publications.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper proposes a topic analysis method based on prolific and authoritative researchers (PARs). First, the authors identify PARs in a specific discipline by considering the number of publications and citations of authors. Based on the research publications of PARs (small dataset), the authors then construct a keyword co-occurrence network and perform a topic analysis. Finally, the authors compare the method with the traditional method.

Findings

The authors found that using a small dataset (only 6.47% of the complete dataset in our experiment) for topic analysis yields relatively high-quality and reliable results. The comparison analysis reveals that the proposed method is quite similar to the results of traditional large dataset analysis in terms of publication time distribution, research areas, core keywords and keyword network density.

Research limitations/implications

Expert opinions are needed in determining the parameters of PARs identification algorithm. The proposed method may neglect the publications of junior researchers and its biases should be discussed.

Practical implications

This paper gives a practical way on how to implement disciplinary analysis based on a small dataset, and how to identify this dataset by proposing a PARs-based topic analysis method. The proposed method presents a useful view of the data based on PARs that can produce results comparable to traditional method, and thus will improve the effectiveness and cost of interdisciplinary topic analysis.

Originality/value

This paper proposes a PARs-based topic analysis method and verifies that topic analysis can be performed using a small dataset.

Interdisciplinary knowledge combinations and emerging technological topics: Implications for reducing uncertainties in research evaluation

This article puts forth a new indicator of emerging technological topics as a tool for addressing challenges inherent in the evaluation of interdisciplinary research. We present this indicator and test its relationship with interdisciplinary and atypical research combinations. We perform this test by using metadata of scientific publications in three domains with different interdisciplinarity challenges: Nano-Enabled Drug Delivery, Synthetic Biology, and Autonomous Vehicles. Our analysis supports the connection between technological emergence and interdisciplinarity and atypicality in knowledge combinations. We further find that the contributions of interdisciplinary and atypical knowledge combinations to addressing emerging technological topics increase or stay constant over time. Implications for policymakers and contributions to the literature on interdisciplinarity and evaluation are provided.

Tracking and Mining the COVID-19 Research Literature

The unprecedented, explosive growth of the COVID-19 domain presents challenges to researchers to keep up with research knowledge within the domain. This article profiles this research to help make that knowledge more accessible via overviews and novel categorizations. We provide websites offering means for researchers to probe more deeply to address specific questions. We further probe and reassemble COVID-19 topical content to address research issues concerning topical evolution and emphases on tactical vs. strategic approaches to mitigate this pandemic and reduce future viral threats. Data suggest that heightened attention to strategic, immunological factors is warranted. Connecting with and transferring in research knowledge from outside the COVID-19 domain demand a viable COVID-19 knowledge model. This study provides complementary topical categorizations to facilitate such modeling to inform future Literature-Based Discovery endeavors.

BEAMS: a workforce development program to bridge the gap between biologists and material scientists

To maximize innovation in materials science and synthetic biology, it is critical to master interdisciplinary understanding and communication within an organization. Programming aimed at this juncture has the potential to bring members of the workforce together to frame new networks and spark collaboration. In this article, we recognize the potential synergy between materials and synthetic biology research and describe our approach to this challenge as a case study. A workforce development program was devised consisting of a lecture series, laboratory demonstrations and a hands-on laboratory competition to produce a bacterial cellulose material with the highest tensile strength. This program, combined with support for infrastructure and research, resulted in a significant return on investment with new externally funded synthetic biology for materials programs for our organization. The learning elements described here may be adapted by other institutions for a variety of settings and goals.

Investing in our nation's future military leaders' synthetic biology knowledge to understand and recognize threats and applications

Synthetic biology encompasses some of the greatest advancements in biology. With improvements in molecular methods and techniques that allow targeted and highly efficient genome manipulation, the capabilities of engineering biology have significantly increased. These enhancements in biotechnology represent significant potential benefits and risks to the global population. It is important that future leaders are trained and understand the incredible benefits, opportunities and risks associated with synthetic biology. The US Department of Defense (DoD) has issued a technical assessment on the future opportunities of synthetic biology and has encouraged the military institutions to expand and encourage bioengineering research programs. At the US Air Force Academy (USAFA), opportunities are provided for future Air Force officers to recognize the potential and risks associated with synthetic biology by participating in the USAFA Synthetic Biology Education Program (USBEP). Cadets can enroll in synthetic biology courses to learn and master molecular biology techniques and work on independent undergraduate research projects. In addition, cadets have the opportunity to join the USAFA's International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team and compete in the international synthetic biology competition. This report includes details on how USAFA has recruited, enrolled and encouraged synthetic biology research and education among future leaders in the US Air Force.

Developing synthetic biology in Argentina: the Latin American TECNOx community as an alternative way for growth of the field

Synthetic biology emerged in the USA and Europe twenty years ago and quickly developed innovative research and technology as a result of continued funding. Synthetic biology is also growing in many developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, where it could have a large economic impact by helping its use of genetic biodiversity in order to boost existing industries. Starting in 2011, Argentine synthetic biology developed along an idiosyncratic path. In 2011-2012, the main focus was not exclusively research but also on community building through teaching and participation in iGEM, following the template of the early "MIT school" of synthetic biology. In 2013-2015, activities diversified and included society-centered projects, social science studies on synthetic biology and bioart. Standard research outputs such as articles and industrial applications helped consolidate several academic working groups. Since 2016, the lack of a critical mass of researchers and a funding crisis were partially compensated by establishing links with Latin American synthetic biologists and with other socially oriented open technology collectives. The TECNOx community is a central node in this growing research and technology network. The first four annual TECNOx meetings brought together synthetic biologists with other open science and engineering platforms and explored the relationship of Latin American technologies with entrepreneurship, open hardware, ethics and human rights. In sum, the socioeconomic context encouraged Latin American synthetic biology to develop in a meandering and diversifying manner. This revealed alternative ways for growth of the field that may be relevant to other developing countries.

Private and public values of innovation: A patent analysis of synthetic biology

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Patent documents are a signalling mechanism about innovation values.

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Extant patent valuation literature tends to overlook the public value of innovation.

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Both private and public value propositions are found in patent documents.

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Public value propositions are less frequent but more diverse.

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Analysing private and public values in patents offers innovation policy insights.

Emerging science and technology fields are increasingly expected to provide solutions to societal grand challenges. The promise of such solutions frequently underwrites claims for the public funding of research. In parallel, universities, public research organizations and, in particular, private enterprises draw on such research to actively secure property rights over potential applications through patenting. Patents represent a claim to garner financial returns from the novel outcomes of science and technology. This is justified by the potential social value promised by patents as they encourage information sharing, further R&D investment, and the useful application of new knowledge. Indeed, the value of patents has generated longstanding academic interest in innovation studies with many scholars investigating its determinants based on econometric models. Yet, this research has largely focused on evaluating factors that influence the market value of patents and the gains from exclusivity rights granted to inventions, which reflect the private value of a patent. However, the patent system is a socially shaped enterprise where private and public concerns intersect. Despite the notion of the social utility of inventions as a patenting condition, and evidence of disconnection between societal needs and the goals of private actors, less attention has been paid to other interpretations of patent value. This paper investigates the various articulations of value delineated by patents in an emerging science and technology domain. As a pilot study, we analyse patents in synthetic biology, contributing a new analytical framework and classification of private and public values at the intersections of science, economy, and society. After considering the legal, business, social and political dimensions of patenting, we undertake a qualitative and systematic examination of patent content in synthetic biology. Our analysis probes the private and public value propositions that are framed in these patents in terms of the potential private and public benefits of research and innovation. Based on this framework, we shed light on questions of what values are being nurtured in inventions in synthetic biology and discuss how attention to public as well as private values opens up promising avenues of research in science, technology and innovation policy.

Mapping the knowledge domain of road safety studies: A scientometric analysis

As a way of obtaining a visual expression of knowledge, mapping knowledge domain (MKD) provides a vision-based analytic approach to scientometric analysis which can be used to reveal an academic community, the structure of its networks, and the dynamic development of a discipline. This study, based on the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) articles on road safety, employs the bibliometric tools VOSviewer and CitNetExplorer to create maps of author co-citation, document co-citation, citation networks, analyze the core authors and classic documents supporting road safety studies and show the citation context and development of such studies. It shows that road safety studies clustered mainly into four groups, whose we will refer to as "effects of driving psychology and behavior on road safety", "causation, frequency and injury severity analysis of road crashes", "epidemiology, assessment and prevention of road traffic injury", and "effects of driver risk factors on driver performance and road safety", respectively. Through our analysis, the core publications and their citation relationships were quickly located and explored, and "crash frequency modeling analysis" has been identified to be the core research topic in road safety studies, with spatial statistical analysis technique emerging as a frontier of this topic.

Assessing the Readiness of Academia in the Topic of False and Unverified Information

The spread of false and unverified information has the potential to inflict damage by harming the reputation of individuals or organisations, shaking financial markets, and influencing crowd decisions in important events. This phenomenon needs to be properly curbed, otherwise it can contaminate other aspects of our social life. In this regard, academia as a key institution against false and unverified information is expected to play a pivotal role. Despite a great deal of research in this arena, the amount of progress by academia is not clear yet. This can lead to misjudgements about the performance of the topic of interest that can ultimately result in wrong science policies regarding academic efforts for quelling false and unverified information. In this research, we address this issue by assessing the readiness of academia in the topic of false and unverified information. To this end, we adopt the emergence framework and measure its dimensions (novelty, growth, coherence, and impact) over more than 21,000 articles published by academia about false and unverified information. Our results show the current body of research has had organic growth so far, which is not promising enough for confronting the problem of false and unverified information. To tackle this problem, we suggest an external push strategy that, compared to the early stages of the topic of interest, reinforces the emergence dimensions and leads to a higher level in every dimension.

More from less - bottom-up reconstitution of cell biology

The ultimate goal of bottom-up synthetic biology is recreating life in its simplest form. However, in its quest to find the minimal functional units of life, this field contributes more than its main aim by also offering a range of tools for asking, and experimentally approaching, biological questions. This Review focusses on how bottom-up reconstitution has furthered our understanding of cell biology. Studying cell biological processes in vitro has a long tradition, but only recent technological advances have enabled researchers to reconstitute increasingly complex biomolecular systems by controlling their multi-component composition and their spatiotemporal arrangements. We illustrate this progress using the example of cytoskeletal processes. Our understanding of these has been greatly enhanced by reconstitution experiments, from the first in vitro experiments 70 years ago to recent work on minimal cytoskeleton systems (including this Special Issue of Journal of Cell Science). Importantly, reconstitution approaches are not limited to the cytoskeleton field. Thus, we also discuss progress in other areas, such as the shaping of biomembranes and cellular signalling, and prompt the reader to add their subfield of cell biology to this list in the future.

Anticipating governance challenges in synthetic biology: Insights from biosynthetic menthol

This paper advances an anticipatory governance framework to investigate and prepare for the potential implications of an emerging technology. Within the growing domain of synthetic biology, we draw on an end-to-end assessment of biosynthetic menthol that incorporates consideration of multiple dimensions of production and use. Based on documentary analysis, available data, and interviews, our approach unfolds in three steps. First, we map the sociotechnical transition in menthol production, comparing existing agricultural and chemical production methods with new biosynthetic processes - or what we call the biological (bio) turn. Second, we explore the rationales, promises and expectations of menthol's bio-turn and explore the drivers of transition so as to clarify which goals and values innovation is addressing. Third, we reflect on the opportunities and challenges of such a transition to put forward an agenda for responsible innovation and anticipatory governance. The bio-turn in menthol is analysed through five responsible innovation dimensions: the potential distribution of benefits and burdens; social resilience; environmental sustainability; infrastructure and business models; and public perception and public interest. We consider the implications of our analysis both for the responsible development and application of synthetic biology for menthol and for the broader assessment and sociotechnical construction of emerging technologies.

Genetic tool development and systemic regulation in biosynthetic technology

With the increased development in research, innovation, and policy interest in recent years, biosynthetic technology has developed rapidly, which combines engineering, electronics, computer science, mathematics, and other disciplines based on classical genetic engineering and metabolic engineering. It gives a wider perspective and a deeper level to perceive the nature of life via cell mechanism, regulatory networks, or biological evolution. Currently, synthetic biology has made great breakthrough in energy, chemical industry, and medicine industries, particularly in the programmable genetic control at multiple levels of regulation to perform designed goals. In this review, the most advanced and comprehensive developments achieved in biosynthetic technology were represented, including genetic engineering as well as synthetic genomics. In addition, the superiority together with the limitations of the current genome-editing tools were summarized.