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Governance of Emerging Technologies/Applications in the Bio/Life Sciences: Genome Editing and Synthetic Biology

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Part of the Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation book series (TOBC, volume 19)

Abstract

This chapter discusses the issues and challenges in governing genome edited crops and synthetic biology. In case of genome editing, there are global initiatives to assess and identify principles and frameworks for governance. Regarding synthetic biology there is hardly any global initiative on governance despite concerns and Parties to Convention on Biological Diversity are discussing about regulating synthetic biology. Parallelly many ideas and proposals have been put forth on governing these technologies and some of them give emphasis to responsible research and innovation and public engagement, and changes in the regulatory regimes have been advocated. To what extent harmonization of governance at global level is not clear, but for governing these two technologies major revisions in national regulatory regimes would be needed. Given their potential to provide many promising solutions to major problems faced by human kind, harnessing that is possible only when there are effective governance systems that enjoy credibility and are based on science.

Keywords

Genome edited crops Genetically modified organisms Responsible research and innovation Biosafety Product vs. Process CRISPR Cartagena protocol on biosafety Precautionary principle Biological weapons convention Public engagement 

Abbreviations

AHTEG

Ad-Hoc Technical Experts Group

BTWC

Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention

BWC

Biological Weapons Convention

CBD

Convention on Biological Diversity

CPB

Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

CRISPR

Clustered regularly Interspaced short palindromic repeats

DARPA

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (USA)

DIY

Do it yourself

EU

European Union

GEC

Genome edited crops

GMOs

Genetically modified organisms

iGEM

International Genetically Engineered Machine

IRGC

International Risk Governance Council

LMO

Living modified organisms

NIH

National Institutes of Health (USA)

NSF

National Science Foundation

OECD

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

RRI

Responsible research and innovation

SPS Agreement

Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (WTO)

TAPIC

Transparency, accountability, participation, integrity, and capacity

WHO

World Health Organization

WTO

World Trade Organization

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© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS)New DelhiIndia

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