Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 May 29:9:e54489.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.54489.

Bioengineering horizon scan 2020

Luke Kemp  1   2 , Laura Adam  3 , Christian R Boehm  1 , Rainer Breitling  4 , Rocco Casagrande  5 , Malcolm Dando  6 , Appolinaire Djikeng  7 , Nicholas G Evans  8   9 , Richard Hammond  10 , Kelly Hills  9 , Lauren A Holt  1   2 , Todd Kuiken  11 , Alemka Markotić  12   13   14 , Piers Millett  15   16 , Johnathan A Napier  17 , Cassidy Nelson  15 , Seán S ÓhÉigeartaigh  1   2 , Anne Osbourn  18 , Megan Palmer  19   20 , Nicola J Patron  21 , Edward Perello  22 , Wibool Piyawattanametha  23   24 , Vanessa Restrepo-Schild  25 , Clarissa Rios-Rojas  1   26 , Catherine Rhodes  1   2 , Anna Roessing  27 , Deborah Scott  28 , Philip Shapira  29   30   31 , Christopher Simuntala  32 , Robert Dj Smith  28 , Lalitha S Sundaram  1   2 , Eriko Takano  4 , Gwyn Uttmark  33 , Bonnie Wintle  34 , Nadia B Zahra  35 , William J Sutherland  2   36
Affiliations

Bioengineering horizon scan 2020

Luke Kemp et al. Elife. .

Abstract

Horizon scanning is intended to identify the opportunities and threats associated with technological, regulatory and social change. In 2017 some of the present authors conducted a horizon scan for bioengineering (Wintle et al., 2017). Here we report the results of a new horizon scan that is based on inputs from a larger and more international group of 38 participants. The final list of 20 issues includes topics spanning from the political (the regulation of genomic data, increased philanthropic funding and malicious uses of neurochemicals) to the environmental (crops for changing climates and agricultural gene drives). The early identification of such issues is relevant to researchers, policy-makers and the wider public.

Keywords: bioengineering; biotechnology; foresight; genetics; genomics; horizon scanning; human biology; medicine; none; point of view.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

LK, LA, CB, RB, RC, MD, AD, RH, LH, AM, CN, SÓ, NP, WP, VR, CR, CR, AR, PS, CS, LS, ET, GU, BW, NZ, WS No competing interests declared, NE Has received funding in the past five years from the following organizations to conduct research and speak on issues related to this article: Greenwall Foundation; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology; Davis Foundation; National Science Foundation. Has participated in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGem) competition as a judge and a member of the Safety Committee several times over the past five years. KH Has participated in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGem) competition as a judge and a member of the Safety Committee several times over the past five years; has accepted travel funding from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology. TK Holds a grant from the Open Philanthropy Foundation to study DIYbio, including gene drives; member of the IUCN task force on synthetic biology and gene drives; co-chair of the human practices committee of iGEM; member of the biosafety/security advisory board for MIT Broad Foundry; has been affiliated with the Genetic Biocontrol of Invasive Rodents consortium at NC State but has never received any salary or other compensation. PM Co-founder of Biosecure Ltd. JN Listed as an inventor on multiple patents; most relevant patent is US 2019/0323022 A1 and family. Acted as a consultant to BASF (2014-2019). AO Director of the Industrial Biotechnology Alliance, Norwich Research Park; trustee with the New Phytologist Trust. MP Recipient of a grant and a gift from the Open Philanthropy Foundation to study biosecurity at Stanford university; volunteer director of the human practices committee of the international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation; member of the board of directors of Revive & Restore. EP Holds shares in Celixir Ltd and Arkurity Ltd; has received payment from Deep Science Ventures Ltd, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Revive & Restore, Celixir Ltd, Arkurity Ltd, CSIRO, International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Biosecure. DS, RS Involved in a consultancy for the ERA-CoBioTech programme (an ERA-Net network funded by Horizon 2020).

References

    1. AlQuraishi M. End-to-end differentiable learning of protein structure. Cell Systems. 2019;8:292–301. doi: 10.1016/j.cels.2019.03.006. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Altieri MA, Nicholls CI, Henao A, Lana MA. Agroecology and the design of climate change-resilient farming systems. Agronomy for Sustainable Development. 2015;35:869–890. doi: 10.1007/s13593-015-0285-2. - DOI
    1. Barons MJ, Hanea AM, Wright SK, Baldock KCR, Wilfert L, Chandler D, Datta S, Fannon J, Hartfield C, Lucas A, Ollerton J, Potts SG, Carreck NL. Assessment of the response of pollinator abundance to environmental pressures using structured expert elicitation. Journal of Apicultural Research. 2018;57:593–604. doi: 10.1080/00218839.2018.1494891. - DOI
    1. Basu S, Rabara RC, Negi S, Shukla P. Engineering PGPMOs through gene editing and systems biology: a solution for phytoremediation? Trends in Biotechnology. 2018;36:499–510. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2018.01.011. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Berardi A, Evans DJ, Baldelli Bombelli F, Lomonossoff GP. Stability of plant virus-based nanocarriers in gastrointestinal fluids. Nanoscale. 2018;10:1667–1679. doi: 10.1039/c7nr07182e. - DOI - PMC - PubMed