Synthetic Biology & Intellectual Property
Sam AuyoungBen HowellArashia Randhawa Natalie Warrick Jeanie YiAnthropology 112 Final Group ProjectPaul Rabinow, Gaymon Bennett & Anthony StavrianakisDecember 6, 2007
Introduction
Synthetic biology is a new formulation of the manner in which “engineering biology” (Endy 2005) can be undertaken. It is a new conception of what and how newtechnology can be made using living material. One way of viewing synthetic biology isas a social movement to combine two disciplines, software engineering and bioengineering, to create a new sub-discipline. The scientists and engineers definingsynthetic biology draw and build upon the practices and the successes of both thesefields. One of the founding principles of synthetic biology has been to adopt an opensource philosophy around the development of new parts. As it is works currently, theMIT parts registry (parts.mit.edu) is an attempt to create the open source space thatdefines the developmental community of synthetic biology.Open source is a set of practices and rules for defining a community of developersthrough which information is freely disclosed and freely distributed. It was conceivedoriginally within the community of software developers as solution to the questions and problems surrounding intellectual property. Though open source is a successful solutionfor these problems in software development it is not clear how, or if, open source philosophy can serve the same purpose for synthetic biology. It is also not clear whatform and consequences open source will ultimately have within the proposed communityof synthetic biologists.In taking the MIT parts registry as our case study we examined some of the justifications for development of the parts registry, as well as some of the implications of the parts registry for innovation within the field of synthetic biology. We researched thehistory of patent law and open source, particularly in the recent history of biotechnology2
and software development. We researched the history of the overlap between biologyand engineering and the justifications for standardization in the field of synthetic biology.We interviewed some of the people using the registry and discussed their impression of the registry as a tool and the adoption of "open source" philosophy. We also looked at theethical justifications of making the registry "open source" and the work of the BioBricksFoundation in "branding" synthetic biology.It is our hope to provide some second order reflection around the adoption of opensource philosophy and the construction of the MIT parts registry.3
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Synthetic Biology & Intellectual Property Sam Auyoung Ben Howell
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| Upload Date: | 01/18/2009 |
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