Ethical Aspects

What is synthetic biology?

Synthetic biology is a new way of research in classical biology. It has a double goal: find the minimum configuration necessary to permit the life and to develop new biological fonctions, missing of the nature.
Born from 3 articles considered as founder and published in the journal Nature in the 2000s, it presents itself like the implantation of engineering systems in living organisms. Indeed, it expects the standardization (thanks to biobricks), characteristic of engineering methods, and also the creation of totally synthetic biological fonctions (design).

The iGEM competition (International Genetically Engineered Machine competition):

Organised for the first time in 2004, the iGEM competition is an international competition of synthetic biology, which takes place every year at MIT in Boston. The purpose of this competition is, in addition to collect and store new biobricks, offer students under the master to confront the problems of scientific research.

The following articles are the result of thinking and discussing that took place throughout the preparation of the competition between students at the iGEM team INSA Toulouse, and a student of philosophy at the Catholic Institute of Toulouse.