Leap 2012 ebook bypage

2012 ANNUALREPORTNEW LEADERS AND VISIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY

The Synthetic Biology Leadership Excellence Accelerator Program (LEAP) Initiative is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research

Center, the Woodrow Wilson Center, and the BioBricks Foundation.

For more information, please visit www.synbioleap.org or email us at [email protected]

THE LEAP VISIONEXCELLENCE IN BIOTECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP Catalyzing a community of emerging leaders in synthetic biology to create bold new visions and strategies for developing biotechnology in the public interest.

LEAP aims to build a cadre of young professionals taking on leadership roles in the synthetic biology community, and create sustainable tools and mechanisms for engaging a broader range of stakeholders in the societal role of biotechnology development.

LETTER FROM THE ORGANIZERSIt is now ~40 years since the invention of genetic engineering. Products and services made by engineering biology already contribute ~2% to the US domestic economy, and the biotechnology sector is still just getting started. Over the last decade “synthetic biology” has come to represent sustained organized work to advance the process of engineering biology and to learn how natural living systems work by rebuilding them. However, actually leading biotechnology requires more than just scientific expertise and engineering prowess. Success requires an understanding of how societal needs and concerns motivate and shape innovation. We need people who can serve as leaders, who can work together to navigate and responsibly advance diverse and distributed technologies, and who enable communities and institutions.

In 2012, we piloted the Synthetic Biology Leadership Excellence Accelerator Program (LEAP) to help launch a community of next generation leaders in responsible biotechnology development. LEAP was designed to do three things: (1) invest in individuals who will ultimately shape and help govern biotechnology development, (2) provide people with tools, networks and commitments to action essential to promoting responsible innovation in practice, and (3) act as a sustaining nexus of resources and support. In essence, we aimed to prepare leaders to lead.

The first class of twenty LEAP Fellows are an exceptional group of emerging leaders working across diverse communities in synthetic biology – universities, national labs, government, industry, think tanks, and community labs. They brought to LEAP their unique visions for promoting responsible biotechnology development in practice. Yet they shared a commitment to engaging across diverse organizations to improve their individual and collective efforts.

The first LEAP program was a weeklong residential workshop designed to provide focused time and space for Fellows to reflect on the complexity of coupled social and technical considerations shaping their work and visions. Joining them were an outstanding leadership facilitation team, and a network of world-class experts across disciplines and sectors that shared their own real-world lessons in leading technology development and social change.

We designed LEAP to germinate a practical sense of vision in steering synthetic biology to benefit society. To develop leadership skills in a concrete manner, Fellows developed ‘strategic action plans’ describing and proposing steps to address their most pressing challenges in responsible innovation in biotechnology. The topics of their plans were as diverse as the Fellows - ranging from educational strategies, to risk research management, to infrastructure for community coordination and governance - and many new plans emerged through the program as collaborative efforts. As living documents, Fellows strongly welcome your constructive input. We envision that this collection will continue and grow as a venue for proposing and vetting key biotechnology leadership visions and strategies.

LEAP exceeded our expectations by bringing together a community of established and emerging leaders, and by catalyzing many new relationships, visions and strategies for realizing biotechnology’s promise. This community is already serving as inspiring examples of leaders who embrace tough questions about how to make the future of biotechnology better, together.

We are excited to share with you here highlights from the inaugural LEAP. To find out more about the program including the next LEAP, read the full plans, and receive program news and updates please visit us at synbioleap.org

Megan J. Palmer Drew Endy

“Synthetic Biology has profound implications for the future of medicine, chemistry and energy, and for the future of our planet. For this reason, the field attracts socially-minded researchers who are eager to use its potential to address the important challenges of our day. The LEAP program and the essays in this collection embody the spirit of the synthetic biology community at its best. The SynbioLEAP community

represents the leading edge of a coupled technical and social effort driven by deep human compassion to invent a better, more sustainable future for all of us.”

Jay Keasling

Hubbard Howe, Jr. Professor of Biochemical Engineering University of California, Berkeley

Associate Laboratory Director Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Chief Executive Officer Joint BioEnergy Institute

Director Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC)

”LEAP offers a unique opportunity to strengthen the relationship between science, engineering, and public policy. Early exposure to policy issues prepares future S&E leaders to make informed public policy decisions based on scientifically sound evidence. When practitioners are afforded the opportunity to wrestle with the challenging legal, social, and ethical implications of their work early in their careers, they will be better prepared to

engage in public policy formation and to communicate with the public.”

Anne-Marie Mazza

Director,Committee on Science, Technology, and Law

Director, Mirzayan S&T Policy Graduate Fellowship Program The National Academies

“Synthetic Biology is clearly on a transformative path, and LEAP is remarkably effective in its ability to model and bring together so many important viewpoints - industry, academic, legal, government, law enforcement, public relations; leading through example, the experience is one which can be especially valuable to those primarily trained in leading edge research, such as our senior scientists and engineers at Agilent Laboratories.”

Darlene Soloman

Senior Vice President Chief Technology Officer AgilentTechnologies

THE 2012 PROGRAMThrough this program, LEAP Fellows build their skills, tools and networks to engage a spectrum of organizations involved in shaping biotechnology.

Workshop 27 Highlights from the flagship LEAP activity - a week long intensive leadership workshop

Visions & Plans 32 Fellow-authored strategic plans to address key needs and opportunities in advancing synthetic biology in the public interest

THE COMMUNITY The LEAP community comprises existing and emerging leaders across diverse sectors who are committed to working together to shape biotechnology development in the public interest.

Fellows 13 Our yearly class of emerging leaders from across the synthetic biology community

Mentors 25 A growing community of program alumni and world-class experts in the diverse disciplines and sectors shaping biotechnology

Partners & Organizing Team 20 The core LEAP team and partners from Sponsoring Organizations who provide strategic vision and support

TABLE OF CONTENTS

NEW LEADERS AND VISIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY

13

LEAP 2012 FELLOWS

LEAP 2012 ANNUAL REPORT

14

PATRICK BOYLE is Wasilla, Alaska’s, first synthetic biologist. He recently completed his Ph.D. in Pamela Silver’s lab at Harvard Medical School. His graduate work there included in silico modeling of yeast metabolism, engineering organelles, improving biohydrogen production, circadian metabolomic analysis, and plant engineering. Patrick’s interest in alternative energy and the environment led him to the Harvard University Center for the Environment, where he studied the scientific, engineering, and political challenges of combating climate change. He has also collaborated with Synberc and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to evaluate the potential environmental consequences of growing engineered cyanobacteria at industrial scales. Patrick currently leads the development of the Organism Design Pipeline at Ginkgo BioWorks, a synthetic biology company that makes and sells engineered organisms. CHRISTINA AGAPAKIS is a synthetic biologist whose

research explores the role of design, ecology, and evolution in biological engineering. Her scientific work spans many scales, from proteins to plants to microbial communities. Through collaboration with biologists, engineers, artists, and designers, she explores the technical and aesthetic dimensions of synthetic biology from a broad perspective. In addition to her research and teaching in biological engineering and design, she explores the social and ethical dimensions of biological engineering through writing and film. Having recently completed her Ph.D. in Pamela Silver’s lab at Harvard University, Christina is currently a postdoctoral researcher in UCLA’s Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, and a L’Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellow.

LEAP 2012 FELLOWS

15

ANNE CHEEVER is an American Association for the Advancement of Science-Science and Technology Policy Fellow and Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. State Dept. in the Office of the Geographer and Global Issues. The lead analyst focused on international scientific issues, she is responsible for all-source analysis, research, and intelligence support to the Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs and the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change. She also conducts extensive outreach and intelligence liaison with other science and technology focused agencies. Previously she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute where she studied the molecular mechanism of selenium incorporation. Anne has a Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

ANDREW CHANG is a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry at Stanford. He completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard. His doctoral research in Christina Smolke’s lab focuses on the design of synthetic RNA switches for programming sensing, processing, and control functions within cells and their application to chemical biosynthesis and targeted cellular therapies. As a teaching assistant, Andrew has taught classes in chemistry, physics, bioengineering, and mathematics; worked at the Tech Museum in San Jose, CA; and helped start Stanford’s first iGEM team. Currently he’s launching a Ph.D.-wide mentoring program that pairs Stanford doctoral students with Ph.D. alumni mentors. He is broadly interested in science and technology policy, education, and entrepreneurship.


16

MARC FACCIOTTI is an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Genome Center at the UC Davis. He received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from UC Berkeley in 2002. Marc’s laboratory currently focuses on comparative genomics and the systems biology of gene regulatory network structure, dynamics, and evolution covering a broad range of activities, from integrated omics to molecular structure dynamics along the way. He is ultimately interested in integrating his research expertise in the context of synthetic biology. In 2009, he founded the UC Davis iGEM team and has mentored teams every year since. Marc also has a strong interest in undergraduate education, and in enhancing the diversity of hands-on creative opportunities for his students. He also enjoys playing drums with a local jazz ensemble.

JOHN CUMBERS has been a synthetic biologist at NASA Ames since 2008, where he has been instrumental in starting NASA’s Synthetic Biology Program. He also organized the first workshop on the applications of synthetic biology to NASA’s mission. John has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry from Brown University, where he studied the mechanisms of radiation resistance and cold tolerance in cyanobacteria from extreme environments. John recently joined the UC Santa Cruz University Affiliated Research Center at NASA Ames as an Associate Scientist and works in the area of bioelectrosynthesis, using electricity as an energy source to fuel metabolism for the production of food in space. John is also the founder of SynBioBeta, a website, conference and network for synthetic biology startup companies.

LEAP 2012 FELLOWS

17

MICHAL GALDZICKI is a senior fellow in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education at the University of Washington. His research is focused on informatics for synthetic biologists. He works on the Synthetic Biology Information Lifecycle Management for the Enterprise project with Professors John Gennari and Herbert Sauro, in collaboration with Dr. Evren Sirin from Clark and Parsia, LLC. Michal completed his Ph.D. in Biomedical and Health Informatics at the University of Washington in 2012. As part of his dissertation research project, he co-founded the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL), an information exchange standard for biological engineering. Michal continues to serve as an SBOL Editor. His previous research at the Children’s Hospital Boston examined the genetic basis of autism. He received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Maryland in 2002, and a M.S. in Bioinformatics from Boston University in 2005.

MICHAEL FISHER is a molecular biologist and protein engineer with extensive experience in science outreach and in promoting the welfare of academic researchers. A postdoctoral scholar with UC Berkeley’s Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), Michael uses synthetic biology tools to enhance the tolerance of microbes to biofuel-relevant chemicals. Due to his interests in public engagement and advocacy, Michael coordinates outreach events with the EBI, was president of the UC Berkeley Postdoctoral Association, and co-founded the UC Berkeley Postdoc Industry Exploration Program, which connects postdocs and graduate students with Bay Area life sciences companies. Michael has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Princeton; a B.S. in Biology from the College of New Jersey.


18

KARMELLA HAYNES is an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering. She also serves as the head judge for the iGEM competition. She earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics at Washington University, St. Louis. Postdoctoral fellowships at Davidson College and Harvard Medical School introduced her to synthetic biology. Her work on bacterial computers was featured on NPR’s Science Friday and in 2008 was recognized as “Publication of the Year” by the Journal of Biological Engineering. Today, her research aims to regulate therapeutic genes by engineering human chromosomes. Karmella is motivated to share mammalian cell resources through open-source repositories so that the synthetic biology community can cooperatively accelerate science’s progress towards rationally designed therapeutics.

NATHAN HILLSON co-founded TeselaGen Biotechnology in 2011 and serves as its Chief Scientific Officer. Nathan also works at Berkeley Lab, where he develops foundational technologies that accelerate the biological design-build-test engineering cycle. Nathan also developed j5, a software tool that supports DNA design and cost optimized assembly instruction generation using advanced synthetic biology techniques. TeselaGen was awarded the commercialization and distribution rights to j5, which serves as one of the foundational technologies in TeselaGen’s Biological Design Automation platform. Nathan’s doctoral research at Harvard Medical School investigated how microbes synthesize antibiotics and other natural products. He was a postdoc at Stanford, where he developed a whole-cell uranium biosensor and researching bacterial cell-cycle regulation.

LEAP 2012 FELLOWS

19

LOUISE HORSFALL is a lecturer in Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology, based within SynthSys – Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology, at the University of Edinburgh. Her research group is interested in multidisciplinary challenges, and her current projects include the application of synthetic biology tools and techniques to bacterial nanoparticle production, bioremediation and complex polymer degradation. She has a number of partnerships with industry as well as academic collaborations within the UK and across Europe. Prior to joining Edinburgh, she worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Glasgow with Prof. Susan Rosser, and at the University of Leeds in the interdisciplinary Astbury Centre. Louise holds an M.Chem. from the University of Oxford, and a DEA and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Université de Liège, Belgium.

ELLEN JORGENSEN is a biomedical researcher and a passionate advocate of citizen science. After years in biotech companies, she co-founded the community biolab, Genspace. The DIY lab’s mission is to promote science literacy and demystify advances in bioscience though engaging the public in a hands-on manner. Genspace was awarded Best Social Study in Synthetic Biology at SB 5.0 for communicating synthetic biology to non-scientists. Ellen has spearheaded many of Genspace’s outreach programs such as the Urban Barcode Project, a collaboration between Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Genspace where high school students pursue projects using DNA barcoding. She has served as Genspace’s president for the past two years. Ellen has also been a mentor to iGEM teams.


20

DAVID SUN KONG is a synthetic biologist, artist, and community organizer based out of Cambridge, MA. He conducted his graduate studies at MIT’s Media Laboratory and received a masters in developing technology for printing nanostructures with energetic beams. He was awarded a Ph.D. for demonstrating the first gene synthesis in a microfluidic, or “lab-on-a-chip,” system. He currently conducts synthetic biology, microfluidics, and digital fabrication research at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. He is also leading the formation of EMW, a new art, technology and community center in Cambridge, MA. David has performed around the country as a DJ, beat-boxer, vocalist, and rapper and he is an award-winning vocal arranger and producer. He is also a published photographer, and has an upcoming exhibit at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

DEREK LINDSTROM is a research scientist in the Molecular Tools lab at Agilent Laboratories, the core research program within Agilent Technologies. Derek received his Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from the UC Santa Cruz and was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. His current research focuses on developing fundamental tools and methods for synthetic biology with the aim of making them so accessible that they will no longer be considered specialized tools for synthetic biology, but simply tools for biology.

LEAP 2012 FELLOWS

21

SARAH MUNRO is a bioengineer in the Biosystems and Biomaterials Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She develops reference materials, data, and methods to provide confidence in biological measurements. Her current research efforts include analysis of RNA external spike-in controls for method validation in RNA sequencing gene expression measurements, integration of functional genomics measurements to design new proteome reference materials, and development of new technical programs in metrology to support synthetic biology applications. She recently completed a National Research Council postdoctoral research associate award term at NIST and earned her Ph.D. in Biological and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University.

RYAN MORHARD is an Associate at the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC. His work focuses on critical biosecurity, public health, and domestic preparedness law and policy aimed at strengthening U.S. national security and resilience by reducing dangers posed by epidemics, biothreats, nuclear disasters, and other destabilizing events. Specifically, he has written on the medium-term future of biotechnology and biological dangers and resulting strategic concerns for homeland and national security. Ryan is an associate editor of Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science, and serves as editor of Preparedness Pulsepoints, a weekly update on government action on readiness and response. He received his J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and his B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh.


22

RYAN RITTERSON is using synthetic biology to design and engineer new photo-controllable proteins, focusing on the cell-cell adhesion protein cadherin. Outside the lab, Ryan has worked to engage and interest the public in science and its relationship to society, especially in a world where most basic research is publicly funded. He is a fellow and founding member of the Synthetic Biology Practices Working Group, and a former member of the Synberc Student Leadership Council. Ryan has a passion for tackling public policy challenges in synthetic biology and hopes to make the “LeAP” into policy work after graduate school. Ryan is nearly finished with his Ph.D. in Biophysics at UC San Francisco; he received a B.S. in Computational Engineering Science from UC Berkeley.

KEITH TYO is assistant professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University. Keith’s research group develops synthetic biology technologies to improve the quality of life for the extreme poor. Keith’s previous research was to engineer microbial hosts for the production of polyesters, nutraceuticals, small molecule drugs, and protein therapeutics. Keith received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from MIT and was a NIH National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellow at Chalmers University in Sweden. Keith’s work in metabolic engineering and systems biology has appeared in Science, Nature Biotechnology, and BMC Biology. At Northwestern, Keith is the advisor for the Global Health and Sustainability Biotechnologies certificate program in the Masters of Biotechnology Program; he also co-directs the Recombinant Protein Production Core Facility.

LEAP 2012 FELLOWS

23

JEFF UBERSAX leads the Biology group at Amyris, a renewable products company based in Emeryville, CA. Prior to leading the Biology group, he led the high-throughput screening group and helped drive the develop of Amyris’ automated strain engineering platform and the synthetic biology method employed to rapidly assemble modular pieces of DNA and put them into yeast. Prior to joining Amyris in 2008, he was a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from UC San Francisco and his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

WALTER VALDIVIA is a fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings. He studies innovation policy and inequality, and focuses on technology transfer and the governance of emerging technologies. Valdivia’s published work includes studies of: public values of the Bayh-Dole Act, wage disparities resulting from the emergence of nanotechnologies, and the tensions between academic freedom and national security with respect to export controls. He has also co-authored a policy report assessing R&D investments in Arizona. His current research examines the distributional outcomes of various modes of university technology transfer, the institutional path-dependence of innovation, and the role of academic freedom in the governance of emerging technologies. Valdivia holds a B.S. in economics from Universidad Católica Boliviana, and an M.S. in economics and a Ph.D. in public administration from Arizona State University.


25

LEAP MENTORS


26

SPENCER ADLERFounder, SynBio Investors, LLC

DAVID SINGH GREWALAssociate Professor, Yale Law School

NANCY K. BURGESS Founder, SynBio Investors, LLC

RICHARD JOHNSONCEO, Global Helix LLC

MARGARET DICKDir. of Strategic Comm., SHO, “Years of Living Dangerously”

THANE KREINERFounder, SynBio Investors, LLC

ROBERT CARLSON Principal, Biodesic

PETER JUTRODeputy Director for Science and Policy, EPA

MENTORSLEAP Mentors support the Fellows, their ideas, and the vision for the program, by lending encouragement, making key introductions, providing advice, and helping to shape the program.

LEAP MENTORS

27

CHITRA KRISHNANExecutive Director, Transverse Myelitis Association

HEMAI PARTHASARATHYSenior Partner, Torch Communications

JOHN WARNER President & CTO, Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry

NATALIE KULDELLFaculty, Department of Biological Engineering, MIT

ELEONORE PAUWELSResearch Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center

EDWARD YOUSpecial Agent, Biological Countermeasures Unit, FBI

KEN OYEDirectory, Program on Emerging Technologies, MIT

DANIEL SAREWITZCo-Director, Consortium for Science

MARY MAXONBiosciences Dir. of DevelopmentLawrence Berkeley Labs

RANDY RETTBERG President, iGEM

LAURIE ZOLOTH Director, Center for Bioethics, Science and SocietyNorthwestern School of Medicine


29

PARTNERS AND ORGANIZING TEAM


30

STRATEGIC PARTNERSLEAP’s Strategic Advisors represent leaders from key partner organizations. They provide critical vision and support to the LEAP program and its growing community, and also serve as program mentors.

PAULA OLSIEWSKIDirector, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

THERESA GOODDirector, National Science Foundation

DAVID REJESKIDirector,Science and Technology Innovation Program (STIP)

JAY D. KEASLINGDirector, Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center

HOLLY MILLIONExecutive Director, BioBricks Foundation


31

FACILITATORSKnowinnovation is a facilitation team focused on accelerating innovation through creativity, problem solving, leadership, managing change, research, and technology. They have run innovation workshops for scientists and engineers across the world.

ANDY BURNETT ZELLA KING TOBY SCOTT


32

MEGAN PALMER Deputy Director, Practices Thrust of Synberc

Megan Palmer is the Deputy

Director of the Practices Thrust

of Synberc, a research fellow

at UC Berkeley, a visiting

Scholar at Stanford University

and an affiliate of the Center

for International Security and

Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford. She manages a portfolio of

projects to develop, promote and advise on practices and policies

for responsible biotechnology development.

Megan has successfully launched a number of programs

engaging synthetic biologists in the broader impacts of their work.

Among these is the Leadership Excellence Accelerator Program,

which aims to cultivate a generation of research leaders who

can develop and promote practices and policies for responsible

biotechnology development.

She has organized many forums on societal aspects of synthetic

biology, including a workshop series that developed a rapid,

inclusive format for creating strategic timelines for biotechnology,

and an interdisciplinary scholars program. Megan ran several

programs examining the public role of science and technology

during her Bioengineering PhD at MIT.

ORGANIZERSThe LEAP Organizers are the foundation that anchors LEAP and its activities. They engage, coordinate and grow the LEAP community and vision.

DREW ENDY Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford University

Drew Endy is a founder of

the field of synthetic biology

one of its most public leaders.

He is Assistant Professor of

Bioengineering at Stanford

University. Drew’s research

focus is on developing

foundational tools that make it easier to engineer biology so that

many more biotechnology applications can be readily realized–

from medical therapies, to chemical and materials manufacture,

to environmental sensing and remediation.

Endy founded and is President of the the BioBricks Foundation,

a non-profit working to develop and open access to the tools

of biotechnology. He also co-founded the Synthetic Biology

working group, the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, and

the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM)

competition, a worldwide genetic engineering competition in

which thousands of students from around the world participate.

In addition to the BioBricks Foundation,

Drew has also been instrumental in founding several other

organizations, including the Molecular Sciences Institute, Codon

Devices, and Gen9. He received a Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering

from Dartmouth College.


33

KEVIN COSTAManaging Director, Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center

Kevin Costa is the Managing

Director of the Synthetic Biology

Engineering Research Center

(Synberc), a multi-university

effort to help lay the foundation

for synthetic biology and train

a new cadre of bio-engineers.

Kevin has been involved in strategic planning at Berkeley Lab,

operations management in the software development sector,

and medical writing. His interests include science communication,

data systems for research management, science policy, and the

social considerations of synthetic biology. Currently, he is working

to develop a sustainable organizational venue for the academic

and industrial synthetic biology research community.

LAUREN HA Global Relationship Lead, BioBricks Foundation

Lauren Ha is the Global

Relationship Lead at the

BioBricks Foundation, an

organization dedicated to

supporting the development

of biotechnology in the public

interest.

Mrs. Ha began her management career in 1997 when she joined

Sydney Brenner to establish the Molecular Sciences Institute

(MSI) in Berkeley, California. In her role as Vice President of

Administration, she helped the MSI win the designation of

“Center of Excellence in Genomic Sciences” from the U.S. National

Institutes of Health and raised over $25M in research funding.

At the BioBricks Foundation, Mrs. Ha coordinates the development

of long-term strategy and secures funding for its programs. She

is currently working to develop a network of design/build labs

around the world (Global BIOFAB Network) and is coordinating a

global technology roadmapping effort for synthetic biology.

In addition to her work with the BioBricks Foundation, Mrs. Ha

is engaged in policy research on science and technology’s role

in innovation and regional economic development in Japan,

in collaboration with the Okinawa Institute of Science and

Technology. She also serves as Founder & President of Creative

BioWorks, a biotechnology consulting firm based in the Research

Triangle Park area of North Carolina. Mrs. Ha received her B.S. in

Biological Sciences from the University of South Carolina.


35

WORKSHOP


36

THE LEAP WORKSHOPLEAP prepares leaders to lead by providing 5 ‘P’s:

Proficiency: practical knowledge of:

• the technical, social, political and economic landscape shaping biotechnology

• how this maps to current challenges in synthetic biology, and

• skills and strategies for working across organizations to advance solutions.

Practice: Hands-on experience in framing problems and devising solutions for real-world challenges.

Peers:A network of people at a similar career stage to provide co-mentorship and support.

Partners:A professional network across relevant organizations that can create an ecosystem for accelerating new ideas through mutual learning and critical resource sharing.

Productivity: Learning by doing via creating materials and planning projects that enhance performance and engagement of broader communities of practice.

WORKSHOP

37


38

LEAP Fellows spend a week working together to develop strategic plans to advance the field of biotechnology. With the help of a professional facilitation team, they are guided through lessons and hands-on exercises designed to build core leadership skills – including identifying needs, creative problem solving, communicating, and strategic planning – and then apply these skills to develop their particular plans.

WORKSHOP

39

The workshop serves as an incubator and launchpad for Fellow to develop their visions and plans for advancing biotechnology to create societal value. The LEAP Fellows are also joined by a group of distinguished guest expert mentors from diverse facets of biotechnology development. Mentors work with the Fellows on their plans, and share their personal leadership stories and challenges.


40

“LEAP provided time to think and to plan a strategy which can direct my research toward the public benefit by embracing responsibility as a leader.”

“I feel as if my career trajectory has undergone a major shift in a positive direction. How to act as an effective leader seems so much more palpable.”

WORKSHOP

41


42

WORKSHOP

43

“The participants and speakers were world-class experts in their fields. Their varied perspectives changed how I think about my responsibility in the field and to the public.”

“LEAP provided a space for unfettered imagination, for dreaming big ideas to change the world for the better, and crucially, resources and mentorship to help realize those ideas. It was a transformational experience.”


45

THE LEAP STRATEGIC ACTION PLANS


46

2012 STRATEGIC ACTION PLANSA core component of LEAP is germinating a practical sense of vision in steering synthetic biology to benefit society. To accelerate the development of leadership skills in a concrete manner, Fellows develop ‘strategic action plans’ at the Workshop. These plans describe Fellows’ own key challenges in responsible biotechnology development, and propose actionable steps by which they can be addressed. As living documents, the authors strongly welcome your constructive input as they continue to refine and enact their plans. We envision that this collection will grow to be a venue for for proposing and vetting key biotechnology leadership visions and strategies.

The first class of twenty LEAP Fellows developed thirteen co-authored white papers describing their visions and plans in development. Paper themes varied widely – ranging from educational models, to risk research and standards development. Several topics also emerged through the workshop as common challenges. Many LEAP Fellows have already begun implementing and refining their plans. We’ve helped catalyze new courses and workshops, new research grants, engaged with funding and policy leaders, and much more.

LEAP STRATEGIC ACTION PLANS

47

EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY

Enhancing Undergraduate Education to Drive Responsible Growth of the Bioeconomy Marc Facciotti

Worldwide Network of Community Labs Ellen Jorgensen

ORGANIZATION AND COLLABORATION

Love Our Monsters – Radical Collaboration in a Post-Disciplinary Age Christina Agapakis

International Synthetic Biology Society Andrew Chang, Anne Cheever, Michael Fisher, Jeff Ubersax, Louise Horsfall

Opening New Channels for Industry-Academic Relations Derek Lindstrom and Nathan Hillson

GOVERNANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY

Circumventing the Paradox of Regulating Emerging Technologies Walter Valdivia

A Call for a Public, Democratically Deliberative Facet in Synthetic Biology Policymaking Ryan Ritterson

RISK RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT

Synthetic Biology Biosecurity Tabletop and Corresponding Educational Tools Ryan Morhard

Coherent Block Funding for Microbial Environmental Risk Assessment and Mitigation Strategy Development Nathan Hillson

STANDARDS AND SHARING

A Vision for a Synthetic Biology Standards Consortium Michal Galdzicki, Sarah Munro, Patrick Boyle Jeff Ubersax

Metafluidics David Kong

Incentive-Driven Information Sharing for Engineering Biology Karmella Haynes

IDENTIFYING NEEDS

SBICE: Synthetic Biology Integrated Concurrent Engineering Framework John Cumbers

Synthetic Biology for Global Health: A Problem-Driven Approach to Healthcare Innovation Keith Tyo


48

In 2011, the U.S. bioeconomy generated an estimated $300 billion of revenue. Advances in foundational technologies such as synthetic biology are lowering barriers to biotechnology, enabling a growing number of people to participate. Technological advances and the democratization of biotechnology present opportunities for economic growth, particularly in areas like small-scale, distributed biomanufacturing. In addition to growth, technical advances springing from the bioeconomy also present great hope for reducing the severity of some of our nation’s most pressing financial challenges, particularly those related

to the increasing costs of healthcare delivery and energy. These opportunities challenge educational institutions to enhance training programs, foster innovation and entrepreneurship, and to promote the responsible/ethical use of biotechnology. We identify new opportunities for research universities to help drive growth in the bioeconomy, highlight existing efforts and propose new opportunities, and describe some of the associated “boots-on-the-ground” challenges that must be addressed before widespread implementation can succeed.

ENHANCING UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION TO DRIVE RESPONSIBLE GROWTH OF THE BIOECONOMYBy Marc T. Facciotti


49

Community biolabs are a natural environment for thoughtful examination and discussion of the implications and ethics surrounding cutting-edge DNA-based technologies. Creating a network of such spaces could have a profound effect at the grassroots level on both science education and the public perception of synthetic biology. Organizations such as Genspace have demonstrated that reframing the synthetic biology laboratory facility as a neighborhood resource can demystify and democratize biotechnology, allowing

it to have a more open relationship with the eventual end user. Here, anyone can become an innovator or inspire others through peer-to-peer teaching. Community labs supplement existing educational programs and encourage the next generation of young researchers by providing hands-on lab training and mentoring. Identifying and distributing best practices for community lab startup and making them freely available would accelerate the development of a network of these resources both nationwide and worldwide.

WORLDWIDE NETWORK OF COMMUNITY LABSBy Ellen D. Jorgensen


50

Over the past decade, synthetic biology has disciplined itself. Synthetic biology aims to make biotechnology a “true engineering discipline,” through the application and adoption of engineering design principles. As biology and engineering have merged in synthetic biology, the blurring of the boundary between science and technology has created a new discipline, complete with its own boundaries and its own discursive methods for creating, reinforcing, and enforcing those boundaries. While these boundaries serve to define useful goals and productive challenges for the field, the

applied research of synthetic biology often benefits from the input of many more disciplines, fields that remain as outsiders even in the dynamic and interdisciplinary field of synthetic biology. This strategic plan describes how recent partnerships between synthetic biology and art, bioethics, policy, and law show the potential for a new model of post-disciplinary research, one where biological designs are conceived and deployed through active collaboration to create technology that functions effectively, safety, sustainability at the human scale.

LOVE OUR MONSTERS - RADICAL COLLABORATION IN A POST-DISCIPLINARY AGEBy Christina Agapakis

LOVE OUR MONSTERS - RADICAL COLLABORATION IN A POST-DISCIPLINARY AGEBy Christina Agapakis


51

Synthetic biology offers significant promise for advances in health and medicine, food and energy production, and environmental sustainability. Realizing this potential requires continued commitment to driving bio-innovation, ensuring biosafety and biosecurity, and building a robust bioeconomy. This strategic action plan proposes the formation of an International Synthetic Biology Society to support the responsible development and deployment of synthetic biology in the public interest. While many disparate organizations are working in synthetic biology, there is currently no primary organization supporting

the needs of diverse synthetic biologists seeking to steer and propel the broader trajectory of the field. A synthetic biology society could provide accurate and timely information about the state of the field to practitioners, policymakers, and the public. It would serve as a community forum to foster discussion, debate, and collaboration among diverse stakeholders and engage the public in learning about, and informing, members’ research. We aim to increase awareness and understanding of technical advancements to illustrate how synthetic biology affects, interacts with, and enriches our lives.

INTERNATIONAL SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY SOCIETYBy Andrew Chang, Anne Cheever, Michael A. Fisher, Jeff Ubersax, Louise Horsfall

LOUISE HORSFALL

JEFF UBERSAX

ANDREW CHANG

MIKE FISHERANNE CHEEVER


52

An effective approach to building relationships between culturally distinct organizations is through immersive experience. This strategic plan proposes to create an opportunity to place academic scientists into an industry-based postdoctoral position without jeopardizing their ability to compete effectively for tenure-track academic positions. In essence, we are offering a return ticket to academics interested in gaining industrial experience. The mechanism that we present is a modification of the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence award (the K99). This is an extremely effective award mechanism that promotes the transition

from an academic postdoctoral position into a tenure-track faculty position by providing funding for both career stages. By broadening the K99 model to allow awardees to select an industrial position as part of their career path, we can leverage the advantages that make current K99 awardees highly competitive when they search for tenure-track positions. We believe that synthetic biologists would be particularly drawn to activating this award option and in doing so will catalyze a broader collaboration between industrial and academic biology.

OPENING NEW CHANNELS FOR INDUSTRY-ACADEMIC RELATIONSBy Derek Lindstrom and Nathan Hillson

NATHAN HILLSONDEREK LINDSTROM


53

New technologies create, at once, the need for regulation and resistance to it within regulatory agencies. Each bureaucracy is bound by law to protect public health and the environment, but also seeks to avoid the risks of expanding the scope of its authority and having to mediate the concomitant political controversies. Hence, the paradox of regulating emerging technologies. As part of a set of measures to address this paradox, we propose an advisory board for the regulation of emerging technologies, fashioned after boundary organization such as the National Science

Advisory Board for Biosafety and Biosecurity. The regulatory Board, composed by distinguished experts in the relevant disciplines, would issue non-binding authoritative recommendations for regulating specific aspects or functions of the new technologies and assign them to specific agencies. The board’s non-compulsory nature, as well as its inclusive membership, suggests that its recommendations could help to legitimize administrative action and reconcile the political tensions inherent to regulation

CIRCUMVENTING THE PARADOX OF REGULATING EMERGING TECHNOLOGIESBy Walter Valdivia


54

While the synthetic biology community enjoys support from a majority of people aware of its activities, it remains unknown to most of the nation. Further, policy makers do not rely on a coherent vision of synthetic biology in order to make regulatory decisions. This leaves a partial vacuum in the public decision making capacity for these new technologies that could stunt their development. Creating a unified vision for synthetic biology will require many new approaches and

tools, and, because synthetic biology has the potential to change many lives in direct and profound ways, one facet of the vision must be an incorporation of public ideas. To accomplish this, this action plan proposes a public dialogue in the style of a Deliberative Poll, a model used successfully in many nations. The UK held a similar discussion and successfully incorporated its suggestions into its synthetic biology roadmap.

A CALL FOR A PUBLIC, DEMOCRATICALLY DELIBERATIVE FACET IN SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY POLICYMAKINGBy Ryan Ritterson


55

This Strategic Action Plan proposes convening essential stakeholders within the synthetic biology and biosecurity community to participate in a biosecurity tabletop exercise. This exercise will allow us to design a web-based learning tool that enables students, scientists, policymakers, and emergency professionals to run virtual biosecurity simulations. The in-person exercise, as well as the web-based simulation, would aid in establishing norms for researchers to follow in the lab. In addition, by offering instructive scenarios on ensuring the safe practice of synthetic biology, as well as in the evaluation and management of the

risks and consequences of a biosecurity emergency, this learning tool would also increase understanding between the research community and those federal entities responsible for biosecurity. Creating a shared understanding and facilitating communication among those who practice synthetic biology and the policymakers who lead government programs responsible for biosecurity risk and consequence management creates opportunities for improved coordination and comprehension, and sets the foundation for policies and regulations that not only preserve security but also inspire innovation.

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY BIOSECURITY TABLETOP AND CORRESPONDING EDUCATIONAL TOOLSBy Ryan Morhard


56

Coherent Block Funding is a mechanism for government, industry, and institutional agencies to support and coordinate the assessment of environmental risks posed by genetically engineered microbes, as well as the development of strategies to mitigate these risks. In short, a single block of funding would support several testing facilities, in addition to multiple individual investigators developing mitigation strategies. Unlike current funding mechanisms which distribute funding piecemeal at 5% or less of larger science projects, do not align the incentives of separate investigators, and

make it difficult to accomplish meaningful outcomes, Coherent Block Funding can sustain real-world test-bed infrastructure and provide return on investment through establishing which mitigation strategies are actually effective. This strategic action plan aims to garner high-level support within federal and institutional agencies to prioritize Coherent Block Funding as a support mechanism for genetically engineered microbe environmental risk assessment and mitigation strategy development.

COHERENT BLOCK FUNDING FOR MICROBIAL ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT AND MITIGATION STRATEGY DEVELOPMENTBy Nathan Hillson


57

The promise of synthetic biology to be instrumental in improving global quality of life and economic security cannot be realized if there is not a concerted effort to transform synthetic biology innovations into useful, safe, and affordable products. As synthetic biology continues to develop, growing numbers of government and non-government organizations have focused on how synthetic biology could be used to responsibly

improve quality of life while considering environmental and health safety issues. This action plan proposes the development of measurement, performance, and safety standards for synthetic biology by a multi-stakeholder consortium as an effective way of ensuring the responsible development and wide acceptance of this technology.

A VISION FOR A SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY STANDARDS CONSORTIUMBy Michal Galdzicki, Sarah Munro, Patrick Boyle, Jeff Ubersax

JEFF UBERSAX PATRICK BOYLE

MICHAL GALDZICKI

SARAH MUNRO


58

Synthetic biologists need great tools to realize their creative visions. Microfluidic, or “lab-on-a-chip,” instrumentation has the potential to be such a foundational tool for synthetic biology. Despite numerous examples of microfluidic devices performing complex processes central to synthetic biology, ranging from automating and miniaturizing DNA synthesis to performing single cell analyses, they are not commonly used. Microfluidics are not easy to make or use, and researchers are typically unable to leverage the designs and hardware of other groups. To help address

these issues I propose in this action plan to develop metafluidics, a toolkit for microfluidics. The metafluidic toolkit leverages digital fabrication to make devices easy to manufacture, abstraction hierarchies for enabling intuitive interfaces to make them easy to use, and finally an open repository of device and hardware designs to make them easier to share and reproduce. Through metafluidics, microfluidics will hopefully become more accessible to synthetic biologists of all types, from students just learning about biology to cutting-edge innovators re-engineering organisms.

METAFLUIDICSBy David Sun Kong


59

The public supports synthetic biology endeavors through tax dollars and private funding. The social mission of this action plan is to optimize the return on this public investment by facilitating the transformation of synthetic biology research into widely accessible information to support the development of new technologies. It describes development of an incentive-driven platform to stimulate and sustain crowd-sourced data sharing. This information will support

future synthetic biology endeavors and the livelihoods of students and trainees in the field. Biosafety and biosecurity specialists will use this platform for interrogation and regulation of synthetic biology practices in order to mitigate potential harm. The scientific mission of this plan is to overcome barriers in the path toward the design of living systems by enabling cooperative, community-driven characterization of compatible (or incompatible) biological components.

INCENTIVE-DRIVEN INFORMATION SHARING FOR ENGINEERING BIOLOGYBy Karmella A. Haynes


60

Despite ongoing scientific and technological advancements in the field of synthetic biology, design remains a major bottleneck in the development of applications. The process of identifying the necessary components that need to be stitched together remains a laborious and time-consuming task. This strategic action plan discusses the implementation of an accelerated design methodology for synthetic

biology. This methodology, known in the aerospace industry as Integrated Concurrent Engineering (ICE), has cut preliminary design time at NASA from nine months to three weeks. Applying Integrated Concurrent Engineering to synthetic biology (SBICE) could significantly speed up the design, build and test cycles and could reshape the way we design genetic circuits, genomes and organisms.

SBICE: SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY INTEGRATED CONCURRENT ENGINEERING FRAMEWORKBy John Cumbers


61

Synthetic Biology is a powerful technology, capable of creating low cost, effective healthcare solutions (e.g., drugs and molecular diagnostics) that could be used in extremely impoverished regions of the world. While the potential impact of Synthetic Biology, in general, is compelling, two challenges have limited this impact to date: (1) the identification of specific opportunities remains challenging, as the vast majority of Synthetic Biology practitioners live far away from the resource-poor and are not intimately aware of the problems, and (2) adequate early and mid-stage funding to

pursue problem-specific technologies. Significant advancement could be made by sending Synthetic Biology observational teams to resource-poor locations, and based on their observational research and Synthetic Biology expertise, develop problem-specific research plans that can be executed with in-country collaborators. The problem-first approach described in this plan aims to maximize impact by focusing resources on well-formulated matches between healthcare problems and appropriate Synthetic Biology technologies.

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY FOR GLOBAL HEALTH: A PROBLEM-DRIVEN APPROACH TO HEALTHCARE INNOVATIONBy Keith Tyo

LEAP 2012 FELLOWS

62

Stay up to date at www.synbioleap.org Email us at [email protected]

LEAP 2012 FELLOWS

63

Special thanks to those who contributed to this publication:

Design: Rounded Corner, Inc.Photography: David Kong Content Management: Bruce Schaar

www.synbioleap.org

Leap 2012 ebook bypage

Documents

Transcript of Leap 2012 ebook bypage