Introduction

Definitions

Laws

Ethical questions

Biosafety and Biosecurity in iGEM

Proposals for the iGEM community

Integration in our project

Interviews

For our report about Dual Use we worked with various experts in ethics, laws and sociology. The complete interviews and statements are available in the report itself.

Prof. Kathryn Nixdorff (Microbiology)

The report (“Dual Use - A report by the Team iGEM Bielefeld-CeBiTec 2015”) the Team iGEM Bielefeld CeBiTec 2015 has submitted in the context of the iGEM competition, as an aspect of their synthetic biology project, is in my view an innovative contribution that will help promote the aim of the iGEM to foster conscientious members of the synthetic biology community. Several surveys over the past ten years have clearly documented that the majority of scientists involved in modern life sciences work do not devote a great deal of active consideration to questions of biosecurity, mainly because they have little awareness of possible dual-use implications of their work. In the iGEM competitions, a lot of emphasis is placed on working safely, with required questionnaires, which, however, mainly cover biosafety aspects of their work. This is an excellent procedure and imperative to working responsibly. While the efforts of the iGEM organizers to promote awareness of biosecurity issues are growing steadily, the same rigorous questioning about dual-use biosecurity risks in carrying out the iGEM projects has to my knowledge not yet been applied. The proposal of the Bielefeld-Team to assess possible dual-use biosecurity risks in the context of all iGEM competition projects is a step in the right direction to promote awareness of biosecurity concerns among competition teams and to allow them to demonstrate that they are acting responsibly not only with biosafety concerns, but also with those related to biosecurity. I consider this relevant and necessary in light of the steadily growing reports of work involving dual-use research of concern (DURC) in the scientific literature that have generated much controversy and debate in the scientific community and in the general public about the need for carrying out research in a responsible manner. In my opinion, the proposal of the Bielefeld CeBiTec Team is a needed step that can definitively complement the standing efforts of the iGEM organizers to foster conscientious members of the synthetic biology community."

Professor Alfons Bora (Sociology)

"The aspect of dual use deserves highest attention, both in science and politics. Therefore, national states as well as international organisations are obliged to monitor all relevant trends and to apply regulation, where necessary. Equally important, however, is the responsibility of scientists and their organisations. The training of young scholars, the implementation of clear and expedient rules and monitoring mechanisms, and the obligation to take dual use aspects into consideration at any step of the research process are important components of scientific self-regulation."

Constantin Teetzmann (Constitutional Lawyer)

"The iGEM competition could strengthen responsible decisions on the dual use research while respecting freedom of research if it provided the necessary resources. The competition offers already one resource by its very nature: iGEM is a good forum to discuss the issue. The second one needs to be developed: well-founded decisions about dual-use research need factual knowledge and normative considerations. Information about the facts and different normative perspectives on the problem could be published within iGEM and institutional points of contact might be established. It would be great if such point of contact could provide counseling and help to examine the issue on all relevant aspects. The decision would still stay with the team and ultimately with every individual researcher. Therefore, any advice shall not get judgmental or take over the decision by giving specific recommendations."

Joseph Ayar (J.D. candidate, Santa Clara School of Law)

Quotal Joseph Ayar

Additional interviews

To analyse the current situation at our university, we further contacted and interviewed Prof. Bohner, head of the ethics commission of our university. He is professor in the department of psychology and provided us valuable insights on the current status and possible further implementation of council for researchers at our university. The analysis of applicable laws and responsibilities of the german legislation are complemented by an interview with the German Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, Department 4: Genetic Engineering.