Markus Schmidt on Risks from Novel Biotechnologies
Dr. Markus Schmidt is founder and team leader of Biofaction, a research and science communication company in Vienna, Austria. With an educational background in electronic engineering, biology and environmental risk assessment he has carried out environmental risk assessment and safety and public perception studies in a number of science and technology fields (GM-crops, gene therapy, nanotechnology, converging technologies, and synthetic biology) for more than 10 years.
He was/is coordinator/partner in several national and European research projects, for example SYNBIOSAFE, the first European project on safety and ethics of synthetic biology (2007-2008), COSY on communicating synthetic biology (2008-2009), TARPOL on industrial and environmental applications of synthetic biology (2008-2010), CISYNBIO on the depiction of synthetic biology in movies (2009-2012), a joint Sino-Austrian project on synthetic biology and risk assessment (2009-2012), or ST-FLOW on standardization for robust bioengineering of new-to-nature biological properties (2011-2015).
He produced science policy reports for the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (on GM-crops in China), and the Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (nanotechnology and converging technologies). He served as an advisor to the European Group on Ethics (EGE) of the European Commission, the US Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, the J Craig Venter Institute, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Bioethics Council of the German Parliament as well as to several thematically related international projects. Markus Schmidt is the author of several peer-reviewed articles, he edited a special issue and two books about synthetic biology and its societal ramifications, and produced the first documentary film about synthetic biology.
In addition to the scientific work, he organized a Science Film Festival and produced an art exhibition (both 2011) to explore novel and creative ideas and interpretations on the future of biotechnology.
Luke Muehlhauser: I’ll start by giving our readers a quick overview of synthetic biology, the “design and construction of biological devices and systems for useful purposes.” As explained in a 2012 book you edited, major applications of synthetic biology include:
- Biofuels: ethanol, algae-based fuels, bio-hydrogen, microbial fuel cells, etc.
- Bioremediation: wastewater treatment, water desalination, solid waste decomposition, CO2 recapturing
, etc. - Biomaterials: bioplastics, bulk chemicals, cellulosomes, etc.
- Novel developments: protocells and xenobiology for the production of novel cells and organisms.
But in addition to promoting the useful applications of synthetic biology, you also speak and write extensively about the potential risks of synthetic biology. Which risks from novel biotechnologies are you most concerned about?