A transatlantic perspective on 20 emerging issues in biological engineering

Citation

Wintle BC, Boehm CR, Rhodes C, Molloy JC, Millett P, Adam L, Breitling R, Carlson R, Casagrande R, Dando M, Doubleday R, Drexler E, Edwards B, Ellis T, Kahl L & Napier JA (2017) A transatlantic perspective on 20 emerging issues in biological engineering. eLife, 6, Art. No.: e30247. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.30247

Abstract
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.

Notes
Additional co-authors: Todd Kuiken, Benjamin R Lichman, Colette A Matthewman, Seán S ÓhÉigeartaigh, Nicola J Patron, Edward Perello, Philip Shapira, Joyce Tait, Eriko Takano, William J Sutherland

Journal
eLife: Volume 6