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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Biological Standards and Biosecurity: The Unexplored Link

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AbstractThe issue of standardisation in Synthetic Biology has important implications at both the technical and governance levels. At the former, standardisation in biology (a still-ongoing process) is expected to exponentially increase the potential of synthetic biology by democratising, easing and expanding our ability to engineer life. Indeed, it has to be stressed that Synthetic Biology is -or at least aims at being- a fully engineering discipline. And engineering, from industrial to electronics, largely relies on standards. A standard is a part, piece, device or procedure with well-established properties, and which can reliably be used in a broad range of industrial applications. Standards are often considered as universal components, in such a way that their constant properties allow a world-wide use. A well-known example of standard parts are nuts and bolts. Indeed, the onset of the industrial revolution was associated with a bloom of different designs of nuts and bolts, with different sizes and thread pitch. It soon became obvious that a standardisation of nuts and bolts was required: standard nuts and bolts were born. But what about Synthetic Biology?