A transatlantic perspective on 20 emerging issues in biological engineering

Wintle, B. C., Boehm, C. R., Rhodes, C., Molloy, J. C., Millett, P., Adam, L., Breitling, R., Carlson, R., Casogrande, R., Dando, M., +19 more...Doubleday, R., Drexler, E., Edwards, B., Ellis, T., Evans, N. G., Hammond, R., Haseloff, J., Kahl, L., Kuiken, T., Lichman, B. R., Matthewman, C. A., Napier, Johnathan

, Oheigeartaigh, S. S., Patron, N. J., Perello, E., Shapira, P., Tail, J., Takano, E and Sutherland, W. J. (2017) A transatlantic perspective on 20 emerging issues in biological engineering. eLife, 6 (e30247). 10.7554/elife.30247

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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.

Item Type	Article
Open Access	Gold
Additional information	This publication was made possible by the Cen- tre for the Study of Existential Risk, the Synthetic Biology Strategic Research Initiative (both at the University of Cambridge), and the Future of Humanity Institute (University of Oxford). The workshop was co-funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF) and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 669751). Funding from Templeton World Charity Foundation TWCF0128/AB82 Gates Cambridge Trust Christian R Boehm Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Manchester Synthetic Biology Research Centre for Fine and Speciality Chemicals BB/M017702/1 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Institute Strategic Programme Grant BBS/E/C/00005207 Johnathan A. Napier
Project	Designing oilseeds for nutrition and health, Manchester Synthetic Biology Research Centre for Fine and Speciality Chemicals, TWCF0128/AB82, Tailoring Plant Metabolism (TPM) - Work package 1 (WP1) - High value lipids for health and industry
Date Deposited	05 Dec 2025 09:09
Last Modified	19 Dec 2025 14:10