A transatlantic perspective on 20 emerging issues in biological engineering

• Published in: eLife Vol. 6
• Main Authors: Wintle, Bonnie C, Boehm, Christian R, Rhodes, Catherine, Molloy, Jennifer C, Millett, Piers, Adam, Laura, Breitling, Rainer, Carlson, Rob, Casagrande, Rocco, Dando, Malcolm, Doubleday, Robert, Drexler, Eric, Edwards, Brett, Ellis, Tom, Evans, Nicholas G, Hammond, Richard, Haseloff, Jim, Kahl, Linda, Kuiken, Todd, Lichman, Benjamin R, Matthewman, Colette A, Napier, Johnathan A, ÓhÉigeartaigh, Seán S, Patron, Nicola J, Perello, Edward, Shapira, Philip, Tait, Joyce, Takano, Eriko, Sutherland, William J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 14-11-2017; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subjects: Bioengineering; Bioengineering - trends; biological engineering; biorisk; Climate Change; Conservation of Natural Resources; Ecology; Engineering; expert elicitation; foresight; horizon scanning; Human Biology and Medicine; Humans; Innovations; Nonnative species; Plant sciences; Point of View; Research - trends; Researchers; Society; Synthetic biology; United States > US; human biology; synthetic biology; ecology; expert elicitation; biological engineering; biorisk; medicine; horizon scanning; foresight
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/elife.30247

Advances in biological engineering are likely to have substantial impacts on global society. To explore these potential impacts we ran a horizon scanning exercise to capture a range of perspectives on the opportunities and risks presented by biological engineering. We first identified 70 potential issues, and then used an iterative process to prioritise 20 issues that we considered to be emerging, to have potential global impact, and to be relatively unknown outside the field of biological engineering. The issues identified may be of interest to researchers, businesses and policy makers in sectors such as health, energy, agriculture and the environment.