| Title |
Social and ethical checkpoints for bottom-up synthetic biology, or protocells
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Systems and Synthetic Biology, October 2009
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s11693-009-9039-2 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Mark A. Bedau, Emily C. Parke, Uwe Tangen, Brigitte Hantsche-Tangen |
| Abstract |
An alternative to creating novel organisms through the traditional "top-down" approach to synthetic biology involves creating them from the "bottom up" by assembling them from non-living components; the products of this approach are called "protocells." In this paper we describe how bottom-up and top-down synthetic biology differ, review the current state of protocell research and development, and examine the unique ethical, social, and regulatory issues raised by bottom-up synthetic biology. Protocells have not yet been developed, but many expect this to happen within the next five to ten years. Accordingly, we identify six key checkpoints in protocell development at which particular attention should be given to specific ethical, social and regulatory issues concerning bottom-up synthetic biology, and make ten recommendations for responsible protocell science that are tied to the achievement of these checkpoints. |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 94 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 4 | 4% |
| United Kingdom | 3 | 3% |
| Austria | 2 | 2% |
| Germany | 1 | 1% |
| Italy | 1 | 1% |
| Unknown | 83 | 88% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 21 | 22% |
| Researcher | 20 | 21% |
| Student > Bachelor | 11 | 12% |
| Student > Master | 9 | 10% |
| Other | 8 | 9% |
| Other | 14 | 15% |
| Unknown | 11 | 12% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 28 | 30% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 12 | 13% |
| Social Sciences | 8 | 9% |
| Chemistry | 7 | 7% |
| Philosophy | 6 | 6% |
| Other | 18 | 19% |
| Unknown | 15 | 16% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 January 2015.
All research outputs
#5,864,294
of 22,776,824 outputs
Outputs from Systems and Synthetic Biology
#29
of 97 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#27,392
of 93,558 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Systems and Synthetic Biology
#6
of 11 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,776,824 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 74th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 97 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.9. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 93,558 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 11 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 45th percentile – i.e., 45% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.