Ethics and Societal Impact
Beyond developing new tools and gaining new knowledge, the Center for Synthetic Biology is committed to impacting society in positive ways. We are pursuing this on a number of levels. We are addressing technology gaps that will benefit people in low- and middle-income countries. We have an active entrepreneurial community to ensure that technologies are translated into positive benefits for society. Finally, we are focused on exploring the new bioethical questions that arise from technology development in synthetic biology and the potential for unintended consequences or dual-use. Part of this is training scientists to consider the larger ethical implications as they move technology forward.