Engineering Biology

Engineering Biology

Engineering Biology: A Research Roadmap for the Next-Generation Bioeconomy is a critical assessment of the current status and potential of engineering biology. It is intended to provide researchers and other stakeholders (including government funders) with a compelling set of technical challenges and opportunities in the near and long term. The matrixed framework of the roadmap considers challenges, bottlenecks, and other limitations observed or predicted in the research, development, and application of advancements in engineering biology tools and technologies toward addressing broad societal challenges. The roadmap’s four technical themes form the foundation of engineering biology research and technology and illustrate where our current abilities lie and what we might achieve in the next 20 years. Complementarily, the five roadmap application and impact sectors demonstrate the breadth and impact of technical advancements in real-world application areas and exemplify how engineering biology tools and products could be oriented towards some of the most complex problems we face as a society. The technical themes represent a “bottom-up” approach focusing on tool and technology innovations to move the field forward, while the five application and impact sectors are a “top-down” look at how engineering biology could contribute toward addressing and overcoming national and global challenges.

More about Engineering Biology

Technical Themes

The technical themes of the roadmap focus on four key areas of engineering biology research and development. Each technical theme has a series of transformative tools and technologies and aspirational goals that drive the progression of research and development. The roadmap consists of overarching breakthrough capabilities that convey significant advancements in the field and 2-, 5-, 10-, and 20-year milestones.

Applications & Impact Sectors

The roadmap illustrates many potential applications of engineering biology, and demonstrates the possible use and impact of these tools and technologies to address and overcome societal challenges. We frame these possibilities through a focus on five sectors, by identifying science and engineering aims and objectives for engineering biology that may be necessary or instrumental to overcoming the challenge, and potential discrete technical achievements towards the objectives. These technical achievements in each sector reflect our four technical themes.

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Contributors

  • Jason Aulds
    US Department of Defense
  • Ania-Ariadna Baetica
    University of California, San Francisco
  • Cassandra Barrett
    Arizona State University
  • Allison Berke
    The Good Food Institute
  • Daniel Brauer
    University of California, Berkeley
  • Kathryn Brink
    Rice University
  • James Chappell
    Rice University
  • Yvonne Chen
    University of California, Los Angeles
  • George Church
    Harvard Medical School
  • Austin Cole
    University of Texas
  • Rhiju Das
    Stanford University
  • Jason Delborne
    North Carolina State University
  • Doug Densmore
    Boston University
  • James Diggans
    Twist Bioscience Corporation
  • John Dueber
    University of California, Berkeley
  • Mary Dunlop
    Boston University
  • Christopher Earnhart
    US Department of Defense
  • Robert Egbert
    Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  • Andrew Ellington
    University of Texas at Austin
  • Steven Evans
    Dow AgroSciences
  • Mike Fero
    TeselaGen Biotechnology, Inc.
  • J.L. Clem Fortman
    Engineering Biology Research Consortium
  • Emma Frow
    Arizona State University
  • Larry Gilbertson
    Monsanto
  • Jimmy Gollihar
    US Army Research Laboratory
  • Alexander Green
    Arizona State University
  • Tahlia Haeuser
    Zymergen
  • Emily Hartman
    University of California, Berkeley
  • Nathan Hillson
    Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
  • Cyan James
    Peraton, support to US Dept. of Defense
  • Richard Johnson
    Global Helix LLC
  • Terry Johnson
    University of California, Berkeley
  • Kristala Jones Prather
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Richard Kitney
    Imperial College London
  • Cody Krivacic
    University of California, San Francisco
  • Natalie Kuldell
    BioBuilder Educational Foundation
  • Joshua Leonard
    Northwestern University
  • Julius Lucks
    Northwestern University
  • June Medford
    Colorado State University
  • Jeremy Mills
    Arizona State University
  • Richard Murray
    California Institute of Technology
  • Vincent Noireaux
    University of Minnesota
  • Michael P. O’Keefe
    LMI, support to US Dept. of Defense
  • Ken Oye
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Megan Palmer
    Stanford University
  • C. Nicole Rosenzweig
    US Department of Defense
  • Heike Sederoff
    North Carolina State University
  • Patrick Shih
    University of California Davis
  • Michael Smanski
    University of Minnesota
  • Liz Specht
    The Good Food Institute
  • Ranjan Srivastava
    University of Connecticut
  • Mark Styczynski
    Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Kersh Theva
    University of California, Berkeley
  • Kurt Thorn
    Zymergen
  • Danielle Tullman-Ercek
    Northwestern University
  • Alon Wellner
    University of Caifornia, Irvine
  • Wilson Wong
    Boston University
  • Peng Yin
    Harvard Medical School
  • Jesse Zalatan
    University of Washington
  • Alex Zanghellini
    Arzeda
  • Jeremy Zucker
    Pacific Northwest National Laboratory