Policy and ethics of synthetic cells

Dr Julian Huppert, Director of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, is speaking today at a key European meeting about building synthetic cells.

The 40 invited attendees, including four Nobel Laureates, are discussing the state of the art in building living cells from individual components. Julian will be talking about the policy and ethical dimensions of this fascinating work. “As in so many areas of scientific development, our understanding of what we can do is accelerating much faster than our consideration of what we should do. There are potentially huge benefits for society from this work, but we need to know how to regulate it, and to ensure proper public understanding of what is being proposed.”

The 2017 Future Symposium on building a synthetic cell is being held in Germany and runs until 14 July.