Open Source, Genetically Engineered Machines From a Kit?

An anonymous reader writes "Students in an MIT competition are helping to build a dev-kit for cells. Together with synthetic biologists, they're building a Registry of Standard Biological Parts called BioBricks. They aim to do for cells what open source software has done for computers. 'The competition is a showcase for the burgeoning field of synthetic biology. Knight and his colleagues Randy Rettberg and Drew Endy, who created the contest in 2004, want to make biological systems easy to build by applying the tools of computer science and engineering: using standard parts and modular design to simplify complex systems. The goal is to create "genetic Legos" that could produce any chemical, from ethanol to pharmaceuticals.'"

Comments

Any chemical?

[rrohbeck]

Sweet. I can think of a few.

Re:Any chemical?

[rrohbeck]

My first thoughts would have been more in DEA territory.

Ha! I love it

[ByOhTek]

I had a genetics prof in 2002/2003 some time, that said this kind of thing was at least 40 years off...

I would love to stick this web page in his face.

BioBrick? Please...

[theRhinoceros]

BioBricks? But 'Plasmid' and 'tonic' have such nicer rings to them...

Basic Programming Blocks?

[the_B0fh]

I just hope that these basic "programming" blocks do not turn out to be Windows.

Just what we need

[Xonstantine]

A biowarfare construction kit distributed to the masses.

Re:Just what we need

[dfetter]

A biowarfare construction kit distributed to the masses. Do you realize that you're making the argument for taking away everything from "the masses," which most emphatically includes you, that might conceivably be misused to harm someone. Are you ready to give up your car? Your computer? Your kitchen utensils?

Re:Just what we need

[Xonstantine]

My computer, my kitchen utensils, and my car can't kill tens of millions of people.

This is simply a probability function. The more people that have the ability to create a biowarfare agent, the higher the chances that you'll have one released into the wild.

Consider this. The DNA sequence for the 1918 avian flu virus is public domain. You can buy base pair sequences online. It's not that difficult to add 1 and 1 to get 2. This isn't really technology you want to democratize to the masses. The number of angst ridden hate the world biochemists is much smaller than the number of angst ridden pimple faced teenagers. Given the ability, sooner or later one of them is going to think it's a cool idea to wipe out half the human species and will try.

Re:Just what we need

[geekoid]

Here it comes, alarmist without a clue of the field there worried about. At least your on the band wagon early with this one.

Re:Just what we need

[Xonstantine]

Here it comes, alarmist without a clue of the field there worried about. At least your on the band wagon early with this one. Actually, I majored in biology and have done a fair amount of research into biowarfare agents. So I do, in fact, have a clue about what I'm talking about.

If I'm being alarmist about this, why not let anyone buy weapons grade plutonium or uranium and publish functional weapons designs along with the CAD/CAM instructions? After all, using your logic it's alarmist to think anyone would actually go to the trouble of actually constructing and using a bomb.

After all, the technical and monetary investment needed to build a nuclear bomb is several orders of magnitude greater than what is required to build a biological agent. If we don't have anything to worry about with biological agents, then obviously our nuke fears are overblown as well.

Not the copyright holders.

[dotancohen]

Now that they've released it under open source, God is going to sue them for copyright infringement.

New License on Life

[Doc Ruby]

A consortium of universities will release the first draft of the BioBrick Public License in 2008. It will allow anyone to use the biological parts -- essentially a cellular dev kit -- for free.

What is this crap about a license taking months to produce and release? They should just release it with a license saying everything made with the kit is in the public domain, with the single exception to that disclaimer of all rights that any derivative must also come with that license. Why would it take more than 5 minutes to agree to release that license, and release it?

When some university comes after me for metabolizing glucose as part of my job (moving a muscle during business hours, just like you sometimes do), I don't want to have to argue about some license they've got on some DNA they synthesized.

All these patents on discovered genes are the purest BS violation of prior art. Any complexity in this BioBrick Public License will create more problems than it could ever solve.

i swear i'm not a luddite

[circletimessquare]

upside: any elicit drug, or pharmaceutical intellect property drugs, can be made

downside: hello nerve gas

results: all of the pluses and minuses of free computer code manipulations we are familiar with (intellectual property meltdown, hackers, etc.), replicated in the world of biochemistry. except this time, the script kiddies are playing with petri dishes

what took an entire universy research department, with all the pcr machines, southern blots, grad students, etc. 10 years ago, will 10 years from now be on the workbench of high school students

i'm all one for the relentless march of technology, and there is no putting pandora back in the box, but this leaves me feeling queasy

maybe it's just the GM wasabi in my sushi

Re:i swear i'm not a luddite

[LionMage]

Wow... Normally, I'd let this stuff slide, but...

upside: any elicit drug [...]

Emphasis added. The word you want to use here is "illicit," as in illegal. "Elicit" is a homophone, but means something entirely different.

[...] and there is no putting pandora back in the box [...]

OK, Pandora was never in the box, you dig? The box (actually a jar in better translations) contained a whole host of blessings (at least in some versions), but also many curses besides (from the versions of the myth that have persisted in popular culture), and it was the opening of the box that released these ills into the world. Most of the versions I've read say that hope was the only thing left in the box after it was carelessly opened, something humanity was allowed to hang onto in order to make up for all the evilness that was let loose, and to compensate us for the good things that were lost. There's a pretty good retelling of the story here.

Re:i swear i'm not a luddite

[Upaut]

downside: hello nerve gas

No. No. You are not going to use that argument here. That is the argument that is killing science. You want to stop someone making deadly gas? Here, not even using the classic "Chlorine" form household chemicals one. How about some phosphene gas? Colourless, odorless, tasteless, kills with low concentration. Can be made with urine (collected, aged, and distilled with charcoal to extract phosphorus), and a some natural gas from a line. Want to ban the action of urination?

Yes, the knowledge and ability to make some deadly compounds have always existed. Its the blight of the scientist; no one trusts us. Scientists are not the heroes, we are always portrayed as either bumbling and accidentally unleashing a horror onto the world, or a megalomaniac bent on global conquest. But the benefit of being able to learn at home far outweighs one or two people that accidently injure themselves. The best way of combatting these accidents? Promoting more science at home. With knowledge instilled at a young age, then its less likely that someone will get hurt, and with learning responsibility at a young age, less likely to hurt others. Its kinda like taking karate, no mater how pissed you get, you don't whip out the years of honed skills for revenge. Its just not polite.

As a young lad I had seven layers of shit beaten out of me, almost on a daily basis. What did I do? Did I take my gun and shoot everyone? Did I make explosives and take everyone out with me? Did I gas my tormentors? Did I use my historical knowledge of poisons craft a unique death? Nope. Wouldn't. Because all life is important, even the life of the dick that is kicking you in the skull. On the other hand, my former tormentors might have notice they went through tires and cars in general faster then their classmates... Never said I was above all forms of petty vengeance...

Saw a talk by Tom Knight recently

[Mr.Ned]

I saw a talk by Tom Knight recently about BioBricks. It's a cool concept.

Some interesting points I remember from the talk:

- His lab and others like it are trying to take the craft out of manipulating cells and make it an engineering discipline.

- They've got ready-made kits of cell building blocks that you can piece together like Legos, and are adding thousands of new ones each year.

- Cells are enormously more efficient at storing information that we can in silicon - 5 or 6 orders of magnitude more dense - but most cells aren't good at writing new data, just reading it.

- Cells are really good at making precise structures at the atomic level, but our mechanical processes rely on statistics and probabilities to get things right. The smaller the structures get, the more a small statistical variation can really mess things up. Carbon nanotubes are much-hyped, and guess what's really good at making carbon structures?

- Another useful critter that was created for the last competition detected arsenic in water. The best manufactured/chemical solution costs is tens of dollars per test; using these kits, undergraduates from Edinburgh created something over a summer that is so cheap the bottles to put it in are the dominate cost.

Just in time for Christmas!

[davidwr]

Announcer: Hey kids! How would you like a chemistry set for Christmas?
Kids: BOR-ING!
Announcer: A ray gun?
Kids: BOR-ING!
Announcer: How about the new amazing Bio-Bricks!
Kids: COOL!!!!!

Announcer voice-over with kids in background hunched over a petri dish full of Bio-Bricks: With Bio-Bricks your kids will have hours upon hours of enjoyment creating new life forms. Bio-Bricks are available at fine genetic research supply stores everywhere.

Announcer reading legal disclaimer:
Neither the International Genetically Engineered Machines Competition, MIT, Bejing University, or the government of China is responsible for improper use of Bio-Bricks. Serious injury, mutations, illness, death, or the end of life on Earth may result from improper use of Bio-Bricks. Using Bio-Bricks to create dangerous life forms is not recommended. Adult supervision required.

Re:Glub, glub

[TripMaster Monkey]

Oh please. They already have microbes that do that. They're called "yeast".

I'd be more interested in a more complex molecule...like, say, C20H25N3O. ^_^

A biohazard waiting to happen.

[ubergeek65536]

What happens when someone uses the wrong block in the right spot by accident? Giving the tools to people that aren't able to understand the possible side effects could be dangerous. Not everyone has a containment level 3 facility in their basement.

It was just a joke!

[greg_barton]

My daughter was born three months ago. My wife jokes, "She won't be allowed to date until she's 25!" I always add, "Yeah, and not until after she gets a PhD in Programmable Genetics..."

I was only half kidding. Now I'm not kidding at all. :)

Re:Scares me

[squiggleslash]

I wouldn't worry too much about that. While most of humanity would be wiped out, Bruce Willis would survive, enabling the scientists to send him back in time to find the origin of the virus. They'll then be able to create a vaccine and we'll be able to live on the surface again.

We should probably check with him that he didn't see anyone get shot dead at an airport when he was a kid though, as it might mean something tragic.

About time too...

[syrinje]

...I, for one, welocme our synthetic Bio-Lego-lical overlords!

Sorry Guys, This Is NOT a Threat

[Pugio]

I don't often post, but most of the comments here are completely wrong. I'm a bioengineer and have been following this project since its inception. Some points:

- This technology is NOT any more effective or dangerous than "traditional" genetic engineering. You will not be able to make a unicorn, dragon, or some unholy dog/cat combination.

- Building an Über Death Virus from this takes just as much skill, equipment, and knowledge as it would using standard tools. First, the BioBricks are made for use inside of a living bacterial organism. They will not work without a cell to operate in. A virus, by contrast, is just a specialized collection of proteins that is not in any way alive - something very very different from BioBricks.

"But what about a killer bacteria?" I hear you ask. Well, while technically possible, it's not easy to make something that can live comfortably in our bodies. To a foreign bacteria, our bodies are a fortress crawling with guards and death traps. It has taken nature millions of years to develop microbes capable of harming us (as our immune systems have also grown to combat each new threat.) The key point here is that, to create a NEW bacterial threat, one would have to be very well versed in biology and genetic engineering. What's more, for someone of this skill level, it would be much easier to create such a bacteria using standard biological techniques, not BioBricks.

These BioBricks are incredibly cool and powerful, within their problem domain. Making bacteria do things is very different from giving them the ability to successfully harm our bodies and spread to other hosts.

that was a rhetorical question

[circletimessquare]

i understand the answer already

the truth is, your mind is brittle and inflexible

the average person on the street can decipher text messages, slang, etc., without any trouble or mental fuzziness

however, there exists a certain inflexible segment of small-mined, petty, and mediocre people who believe it is somehow more important to focus on the color of the wrapping paper rather than gift

that's a metaphor for valuing cosmetics over content. it means i think your mind is shallow. can you comprehend a metaphor dear autistic turd? or not until i rigidly adhere to strunk & white's elements of style will your dim mind whir and click the meaning into place?

in which case, it is with PLEASURE that my poor formatting trips up such brittle minds. consider it a useful filter on my part: when i confront grammar nazis, i am ENCOURAGED to format poorly based on your brittle reactions. i would choose not to continue communicating with minds that work like yours. and my poor formatting achieves that. magical, huh?

your feeble mind's inability to get over that which normal folk have no trouble digesting mentally is a loud and clear signal for me to ignore you, continue on my way, and be happy brittle feeble minds like yours are tripped up and sent packing from the conversation

you'll notice that was a run on sentence. you'll notice i don't fucking care, and am happy not to care, considering the type of person who does care. i feel liberated from mediocrity by ignoring your concerns

capisce, you useless feeble dim bulb? oh, and by the way, if you're still reading at this point: IF YOU GOT THROUGH THAT MUCH NEGATIVE BULLSHIT, AS BADLY FORMATTED AS IT WAS, AND YOU'RE STILL READING, WHY. THE. FUCK. DO. YOU. FUCKING. CARE. SO. MUCH. ABOUT. GRAMMAR. YOU. FUCKING. BRITTLE. MINDED. TURD?

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Re:Scares me

[iaminthetrunk]

Once you have cheap, easy engineering of microbial life, then all it takes is exactly ONE maniac to design a transmittable disease that will wipe out everyone. Once you have cheap, easy engineering of microbial life, you also have thousands of people competent to work on cures, genetic enhancements, immune system upgrades, rapid turn-around vaccines, and so forth. Computers and programming languages didn't just produce script kiddies, they produces all the other benefits of computers and programming languages, from security researches to flash games to robotic assembly lines to the pending promise of hand-held real-time universal translation widgets. Genetic engineering brings extension of lifespan, curing of disease, creation of new life forms, preservation of extinct species, etc. Not that bio-bricks silver bullet such stuff, anymore than the first room-sized ENIAC instantly snapped universal translation into existence. Just that your alarmism sees a narrow range. If you can't keep the technology contained, one of the most rational things to do is make a large pool of benevolent people competent in the technology, to counteract the impact of the nutty minority who will attempt to misuse it.

Designing a disease like this would be almost pathetically simple with the right tools. Design it to be extremely infectious, but with an incubation period of 10 years before it starts killing. The bio-bricks will make it easy to test that it works on humans, incubating for 10 years, eh? Or will you be testing it in a petri dish and presuming you can mod it defect-free to both work in humans and incubate for 10 years, setting aside the hilarity of how difficult such an incubation effect would be. Not even influenza or ebola kills 99 percent of people, incidentally, but don't let that stop your alarmist hyperbole. 10 years from now, I definately expect your genome will be decodable on the cheap inside a day, and we'll be well along in decoding a whole host of symbiotic gut bacteria and bloodstream chemicals and so forth. Most probably we'll be busy working on tech to monitor your blood chemistry real-time, and thinking about regularly, say, decoding the state and composition of your internal fauna on routine doctor visits. Remaining undetected 10 years from now seems to be more challenging than you breezily think it will be. A majority of script kiddies attacks from 10 years ago are negligible now, security layers and techniques advanced.

If any technology should be tightly controlled, this is it. Technologies should be appropriately regulated with a judicious rational eye, as we do with dozens of technologies already. There's a delicious irony in yourself or someone you like dying from some variant flavor of disease years hence, because you were too alarmist to let me study the proteans and genetics of those cells as an intellectual hobby and contribute something worthwild, and I programmed flash games instead. If anything ought to be more tightly regulated, incidentally, it's parenting. I could do with less nutty people in the world to misuse technology in the first place. -evoke

kind of on the right path

[circletimessquare]

the first teenage biohack will be vat-grown chicken mcnuggets to replace the real mcnuggets in their school cafeteria. this after 13 year old suzy mcqueasy visits a farm and it dawns on her for the first time where her hamburgers come from

that's the kind of "less genocide" teenagers are concerned with