Policy on Synthetic Biology

Table of Contents

Synthetic biology UPSC: Relevance

GS 3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Recently, Department of Biotechnology has released a draft foresight paper on synthetic biology and has stressed upon the need for a national policy that can consolidate India’s stand on the issue.

Synthetic biology meaning: Synthetic biology refers to the science of using genetic sequencing, editing, and modification to create unnatural organisms or organic molecules that can function in living systems.
Synthetic biology enables scientists to design and synthesise new sequences of DNA from scratch.

The applications of synthetic biology ranges from developing synthetic organisms for vaccination to creating natural products in a lab such as vanillin, (the organic compound extracted from vanilla seeds), which can now be grown in yeasts with additional plant genomes.
Pharmaceutical industry: Synthetic biology can be used to make natural compounds such as artemisinin that is used for the treatment of malaria and Car T cell therapy for cancer treatment.
Fashion industry: Some companies are exploring the possibility of dyeing jeans without producing hazardous waste.
Agriculture: Companies are also delivering fixed nitrogen to plants instead of using fertilisers, engineering microbes to create food additives or brew proteins.

Rapid growth: Synthetic biology is rapidly evolving with new discoveries happening every year; thus, it is time to create a policy for synthetic biology now more than ever. Soon we will start to see some products and we need to be ready with the regulatory framework.
Risk vs benefits: There is also a need to look at the benefits of the products and the risk it poses to biodiversity.

India is rich in biodiversity. Though a benefit, synthetic biology can also have adverse impacts such as escaping into the environment and recombining with existing biodiversity.
All these prospects have to be studied before devising a policy on synthetic biology.

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