[Sci-tech-public] STS Circle, October 31st - Emma Frow - (Please RSVP)

[STS]

*STS Circle at Harvard*
[image: samuelevansresear/7D21F2C9.gif]
*
*
*Emma Frow*
*Program on Science, Technology, and Society, Harvard *
*
*
on

*Making Big Promises Come True? Articulating and Realizing the Value of
Synthetic Biology*
Monday, October 31st
12:15-2:00 p.m.
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 100, Room 106

[image: samuelevansresear/7D21F2C9.gif]

Lunch is provided if you RSVP.
Please RSVP to sts
<sts at hks.harvard.edu>@hks.harvard.edu<sts at hks.harvard.edu>by 5pm
Thursday, October 27th.
*
*
*Abstract:* Synthetic biology has gained visibility over the past decade as
an approach to biotechnology that prioritizes the use of engineering
principles and practices to design and make new organisms. Synthetic
biologists aspire to turn biology into an engineering discipline, and this
aspiration is associated with big promises — not least a new ‘industrial
revolution’ in the use of biological organisms for purposes including drug
production, industrial processing, environmental remediation, and
personalized medicine.


The ‘BioBrickTM standard biological part’ epitomizes this engineering
approach to biology; named with explicit reference to Lego® bricks,
BioBricks are standardized DNA components designed to enable easy and
reliable assembly of genetic ‘circuits’ for engineering new organisms. Over
the past decade a growing international community of synthetic biologists
has been working to develop technologies, standards, measurement tools, and
infrastructure to support the creation and curation of collections of
modular, interchangeable genetic parts. In practice, several tensions are
becoming apparent as this mechanistic and engineering-led vision of
biotechnology is articulated with respect to more biologically grounded
understandings and practices for working with living organisms. In this
seminar I will draw on my research on standards development in synthetic
biology to explore some of the frictions and ambiguities involved in trying
to standardize life according to engineering ideals.


*Biography*: Emma Frow is a Research Fellow with the Program on Science,
Technology & Society at the Kennedy School of Government, and a Lecturer in
Science & Technology Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Emma originally
trained as a bioscientist, and has a PhD in biochemistry from the University
of Cambridge. After her PhD, she worked at the journal Nature for two years
before moving to the ESRC Genomics Policy & Research Forum in Edinburgh.
Emma completed an MSc in STS at Edinburgh in 2009. Her research interests
revolve around processes of standard-setting in domains including scientific
publishing and synthetic biology. Since 2008 she has helped to run the UK
Synthetic Biology Standards Network, a multidisciplinary research network
funded by the UK Research Councils. She is also part of a new EU project on
standards development in synthetic biology, which will run from 2012-2015.

A complete list of STS Circle at Harvard events can be found on our website:
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/
Follow us on Facebook: STS at Harvard <http://www.facebook.com/HarvardSTS>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/sci-tech-public/attachments/20111024/aa536fe0/attachment.htm