Synthetic Biology: The Intellectual Property Puzzle

Sapna Kumar, Faculty Fellow, Duke Law School, and Arti Rai, Professor of Law, Duke Law School

11/04/2008
(Original Publish Date: 3/1/2007)

Synthetic biology takes as its mission the construction, and reconstruction, of life at the genetic level. The scale and ambition of synthetic biology efforts go well beyond traditional recombinant DNA technology. Rather than simply transferring a preexisting gene from one species to another, synthetic biologists aim to make biology a true engineering discipline. In the same way that electrical engineers rely on standard circuit components, or computer programmers rely on reusing modular blocks of code, synthetic biologists wish to create an array of standard, modular gene switches or parts that can be readily synthesized and mixed together in different combinations. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has a Registry of Standard Biological Parts [that] supports this goal by recording and indexing biological parts that are currently being built and offering synthesis and assembly services to construct new parts, devices, and systems. Systems, devices, parts, and DNA represent descending levels of complexity systems consist of devices, and devices consist of parts composed of DNA.