By Arnaud MONTEBOURG
Ministre du Redressement productif
By Frédéric SGARD et Yuko HARAYAMA
Direction pour la Science, la Technologie et l’Industrie-OCDE
Rooted in the spectacular scientific discoveries about life made over the past fifty years, the “bioeconomy” is a promising sector for growth in this 21st century. A broader concern for the environment, less dependence on natural resources and the requisite transition of our economic system toward more sustainability open several opportunities for biotechnology, which lies at the core of bioeconomics. Realizing them necessitates implementing deliberate policies for leveling the obstructions to development.
By François KÉPÈS
Programme d’Épigénomique (Genopole®), institut de Biologie des Systèmes et de Synthèse (Genopole®, UEVE, CNRS), Center for Synthetic Biology and Innovation (Imperial College London)
Engineering is evolving fast in biology. Its advanced forms, grouped under the phrase “synthetic biology”, iteratively pair the designing and making of complex objects based on (or inspired by) biology. Like nanotechnology, synthetic biology might fully alter our approach to key techniques. Thanks to its ability to manipulate matter at the molecular level, a new generation of products, industries and markets lies ahead with applications notably in health, agribusiness, the environment, energy and materials. Making these new products involves post-genomic bimolecular methods, which have been the focus of intense efforts in research for several decades now. However the most noticeable scientific and methodological “locks” are on the phase of conception – a situation probably reflecting inadequate investments. This article identifies certain locks.
By Jean-Philippe VERT
Directeur du Centre de Bioinformatique de Mines ParisTech
Even as high-speed technology in genomics and proteomics is invading laboratories, the life sciences are coping with an extraordinarily huge, complex mountain of data. Manipulating it to extract something biologically meaningful requires new approaches involving simulations and computers. Bioinformatics lies at the interface between computer science and biology. It is also a vital industry for stocking, diffusing, analyzing and interpreting biological data for uses in the health industry, agribusiness or even the field of energy. An overview of bioinformatics, its stakeholders and challenges…
By Emily M. LEPROUST, Derek LINDSTROM and Stephen LADERMAN
Agilent Technologies, Inc., Santa Clara, California 95051, Etats-Unis
and Maurice SANCIAUME
Agilent Technologies France, S.A.S., Diegem, BC B1813, Belgique
Synthetic biology has been described as the design and construction of biological devices and systems for useful purposes. The synthesis of DNA is a critical part of construction. Advanced measurements have been both enabling and motivating for advances in DNA synthesis chemistry. Building on decades of development of chemical synthesis of DNA and the development of DNA microarrays, additional careful attention to minimizing rare side reactions and very small non-idealities in reaction yields has enabled unprecedented levels of synthesis perfection and throughput. The industrialization of this advanced chemistry has been shown to serve as a robust and economical basis for highly sensitive and specific hybridization assays. It has also been shown to serve as a robust and economical source of user defined DNA oligonucleotides of sufficient quality to be used for synthetic biology. The availability of high quality DNA oligonucleotides, coupled with analogously industrialized processes for combining them into larger constructs, opens up the possibility of widespread adoption of synthetic biology methods. New measurement modalities are being developed as a consequence. These examples, along with others elaborated elsewhere in this volume, illustrate the close and sometimes unpredictable interplay amongst measurement, science, and biotechnology, and the foundational role of measurement in advancing the bio-economy.
By Olivier DELABROY
Directeur R&D, Air liquid
The growth of a bioeconomy, especially in transportation, involves developing a biofuel industry. Second generation biofuels can be made with not only biological methods but also biomass-to-liquid processes borrowed from thermochemistry. Players in this field, including Air Liquide, are drawing up a technical and economic roadmap for competitiveness in this emerging branch of industry. Since the thermochemical approach for gasifying a biomass also yields large quantities of hydrogen, the industrialization of this branch and concomitant production of biohydrogen at competitive prices provide leverage for accelerating the transition toward using H2 for transportation.
By Vincent SCHÄCHTER
Total Énergies Nouvelles
When applied to engineering the metabolism of microorganisms, synthetic biology produces a broad spectrum of biomolecules from carbohydrates and, in the near future, from the biomass in general. The markets for biofuels and for chemicals are thus hooked up through a common technological core. Synthetic biology also opens new possibilities for switching from different types of biomass to different products, thus allowing for more flexibility in development strategies and eventually in industrial operations. This opening is to be welcomed even though the economic and societal environments hardly favor biofuels. A few more years of R&D are needed to bring these new possibilities to industrial maturity. Advanced biofuels will pass the threshold at which they become profitable and will no longer need subsidies.
By Olivier APPERT
Président d’IFP Énergies nouvelles
et Fabio ALARIO
Ingénieur Économiste à la Direction Économie et Veille d’IFP Énergies nouvelles
Raw materials produced by petrochemistry for the chemical industry might, at sometime or another, be hampered by problems of accessibility. Is a “biosource chemistry” a viable alternative to classical petrochemistry, which transforms fossil resources? Under what conditions? What role might public authorities play in this field?
By Thierry FUSAI
Médecin en chef, Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées, chef de la division Appui Scientifique
After years of biological research – of analyzing step by step the relations between the structure and functions of cellular constituents – a revolution is taking place in our conceptions: life is coming to be seen as a system; and sophisticated technologies, such as synthetic biology, are turning the genome into chemical products. In this context, highly pathogenic viruses are being used for therapy; and nanotechnology provides us with the tools of vectorization for transporting such products to their targets, thus optimizing their effects.
By Ali SAÏB
Recteur de l’Académie de Caen, professeur titulaire de la chaire de biologie du CNAM, directeur de la recherche du CNAM (2009-2012), coordonnateur de l’Observatoire de la biologie de synthèse
Molecular biology and associated techniques are the grounds where the seeds for synthetic biology were planted; but they are linked to the history of virology. Whereas synthetic biology started infusing scientific circles in 2000, biological engineering arose out of work on viruses in the 1960s. Several techniques – now available to amateur biologists as well as scientists – have created a new forum of free exchanges, a sort of “open source” biology. Techniques increasingly available at ridiculously low costs can serve to manipulate existing viruses, create new ones or even bring extinct viruses “back to life”. These manipulations are often performed in a therapeutic setting or, more simply, in the pursuit of a better understanding of life. Beyond the promising applications, several questions arise that must be submitted to debate in society so as to gauge the issues, implications and risks.
By Dominique PLANCHENAULT
Inspecteur général de la santé publique vétérinaire, membre du Conseil général de l’Agriculture, de l’Alimentation et des Espaces ruraux (CGAAER)
The many and varied tools used to obtain new varieties of plants are more or less well perceived by society. Improving plants, though still mainly a matter of luck, involves choices determined by the needs of farmers, industrialists or consumers. Luck, conditions and requirements are the key words for a dialog that should take place among all stakeholders.
By Dominique DRON
Mission Financement de la transition écologique. Précédemment Commissaire générale et Déléguée interministérielle au Développement durable
Materials and processes from “biosources” have aroused enormous interest worldwide among both private companies and public officials. Theoretically “renewable” materials might replace resources that can be depleted or confiscated; and bioprocesses might cause less harm than conventional ones for health and the environment, whether in industry or agriculture. True; but rushing into the bioeconomy — an economy based on living beings — guided solely by this reductionistic view and a form of reasoning inherited from the mineral economy might soon lead to disappointment and even prove more harmful. This is a matter not just of science but also of culture.
By Christophe ATTALI
Ingénieur général des Mines en fonction au CGEIET
The joint report by the Conseil Général de l’Alimentation, de l’Agriculture et des Espaces Ruraux (CGAAER), the Conseil Général de l’Environnement and du Développement Durable (CGEDD) and the Conseil Général de l’Économie, de l’Industrie, de l’Énergie et desTechnologies (CGEIET) is part of a collective effort to reorient the economy toward a more sustainable development. The wide variety of new uses of the biomass is already shaping an emerging bioeconomy
By Françoise ROURE
Contrôleur général Économique et Financier, Présidente de la section Technologies et Société au Conseil général de l’Économie, de l’Industrie, de l’Énergie et des Technologies (CGEIET) – Ministère de l’Économie et des Finances et ministère du Redressement productif
Questions about the availability and interoperability of digital data are essential for the innovation of the applications that are or will be used in the bioeconomy, and for their safety and security. International standards must be worked out by a technical committee devoted to biotechnology in the International Standards Organization.
By Patrice BINDER
Médecin général inspecteur (2S)
Synthetic biology is already a major, promising branch of the bioeconomy. Officials in defense and security are interested in it because of both its potentially relevant prospects and the questions raised about the safety of “goods with a dual use” (civilian and military). The development of “clubs of amateur biologists” and of a “home biology” increasingly worries public opinion. Although laws and regulations provide responses incertain cases, other guarantees — ethical ones — must also be forthcoming. Other responses involve the commitment to a scientific code of conduct, the formation of a scientific committee on biological security and a public information campaign like the one launched by the Synthetic Biology Observatory in France.
By Alexei GRINBAUM
CEA-Saclay/LARSIM
To the stock of social, economic, political, ethical and metaphysical questions having to do with the development of biotechnology, synthetic biology has added new interrogations but, more importantly, has revived and updated older ones. Citizen confidence in scientists is no longer to be taken for granted; and as much can be said about technologists, engineers and industrialists. A new dialog between science and society must lead without delay to a set of norms for anticipating, insofar as possible, the issues that will arise as the products of synthetic biology are more widely circulated.
By Gérard DUBEY
Professeur de sociologie. Institut Mines-Télécom/TEM
Occasions for a dialog between the applied and human sciences are few and far between, at least when the theoretical presuppositions underlying these disciplines are in the agenda. Since robots are, historically, a mirror image of human beings, they are a natural reason for reopening this dialog. This holds even more in the case of personal robotics, or “cobotics”, the subject of this article and one of the most promising fields of research in robotics. Given that these objects must act in the proximity of human beings, in our everyday environment and in close relations with us, broad questions arise that do not fit within the traditional bounds of engineering. By placing these objects in the anthropological and sociological framework where they take on meaning, some of the issues, practical as well as epistemological, are identified that will emerge as robots enter production on an industrial scale.
