Synthetic Biology as a Major Biothreat Enhancer
摘要
In the context of the Meta-Biothreat, new breeds of pathogens may be used to derail surveillance and intervention. Such cases are the fully or partly engineered strains—Metapathogens, with six generations being identifiable. Synthetic biology, an engineering cognizant iteration of Applied Biology allows cognitive, methodological and operational optimization of such endeavors with cost- effective prototyping and production runs of very low to high outputs. Advanced options include genome pasting on minimal cellular chassis, recombining genomic elements of selected cells and virions, synthesizing microorganisms from commercially available (bio)chemical compounds, engineering xenomicroorganisms with non-canonical monomers in their macromolecules or entirely different macromolecules all the way to bionic microorganisms sporting the addition of mechanical parts in live cells, biocyborgs which combine normal and artificial cells and cyborgs and hybrid biobots with different mixtures of biological and technomechanical context and different qualities and capabilities. Such amenities pose extreme risks in terms of biosecurity and further the Meta-Biothreat risk manifold. Last but not least is the recurring concept of binary threats which refers to different formats, from independent triggers, biochemical or physical, that activate or reboot a live system (cellular organism, virus) to two-element cooperation as with helper viruses and, conceivably, to spatiotemporally coordinated epidemics.