Synthetic Biology: The "weapon" of Life Science

The purpose of transforming life is to better understand and regulate the phenomenon of life, so that it can serve to improve the ecology and improve the quality of human life. In the future, driven by new technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data, synthetic biology will give humans a stronger ability to "transform nature and use nature," of course, but also bring new issues such as social ethics and security. We must be mentally clear about what to do and how it is right; While doing a good job in risk assessment and developing technologies and strategies for risk prevention and control, corresponding research norms, ethical guiding principles and corresponding laws and regulations should be formulated in a timely manner, supplemented by management rules and supervision methods that can be implemented.

After millions of years of human exploration of life, it has taken three revolutions in the last two centuries to reach the height of "synthetic biology" and form the ability to engineer. However, this is only the first step in a long journey. To make good use of the "sharp weapon" of synthetic biology and contribute to the ideal of building a modern socialist country, we also need to invest a lot of effort to improve knowledge, innovative technology, practical transformation, and service needs. Chinese scientists are duty-bound to do so.