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| - | <span class="title">Motivation</span>
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| - | ”Engineering microbial strains to make industrially useful biochemicals from renewable feedstocks: ’This technology holds pretty good promise for making a <h12>substantial impact on the world</h12>’” </br>
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| - | ”How scientists are engineering DNA that may one day eliminate malaria, <h13>solve the energy crisis and feed the world</h13>”</br>
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| - | ”With hopes to offer <h12>new therapeutic treatments</h12> for disease and <h13>new energy sources</h13> in the form of biofuels, the field of synthetic biology could have a huge impact in the fields of medicine and technology”</br>
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| - | ”Synthetic life promises ’magical future’: <h12>Say goodbye to global warming</h12>, toxic waste, and dependency on fossil fuels, and get ready to enjoy <h13>perfect health </h13>with exotic drugs that could one day cure most diseases and <h12>extend lifespan</h12> indefinitely” </br></br>
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| - | Global warming, famine, cancer, the energy crisis: from a quick look in the popular press, it seems that for every enormous problem, there’s a microbial solution. Synthetic biology offers innovative contributions to a wide range of fields, from energy, health, medicine, the environment, and more. </br>
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| - | However, note the common denominator between all of the articles quoted above: ”hope”, ”promise”, ”may one day”, ”in the works”. Hundreds of biologically engineered systems have been developed, but for now, progress has mostly stopped there. The question presents itself: </br>
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| - | <h4>What is standing in the way of making synthetic biology projects reality?</h4><hr/></br>
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| - | Of course, there are many factors that complicate the move from a laboratory proof of concept to large-scale, real world applications. However, at this point in time, even if all of the technological hurdles were overcome, most synthetic biology projects are still not ready for wide-scale release, for two main reasons:</br>
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| - | <h6>1) There are too many risks and unknown consequences.</h6></br><p> Releasing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the environment is problematic: the released population must be robust enough to survive outside of the protective cocoon of laboratory conditions, but not so strong as to pose a threat to the delicate ecosystem. How can we release GMOs with confidence that they only affect their intended task?</p> </br></br>
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| - | <h6> 2) There is not enough public support. </h6></br><p>The general public views innovative genetic and biological research with suspicion, partially because of legitimate concerns about consequences, and partially because of a lack of scientific literacy and understanding. Of course, a lack of public support is generally reflected in government policy, which can severely impede research. How can we foster debate and education in the field of synthetic biology? </br></br>
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| - | To address these issues, we at iGEM_BGU adopted a double-pronged approach: </br>
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| - | In order to minimize risks, we are developing a control mechanism to limit the lifetime of GMOs upon release into the environment. </br>
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| - | In order to maximize support, we embarked on an extensive campaign to encourage discourse with the general public about synthetic biology.<p> </br></br></br></br>
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