The book contains a series of specific recommendations for those with scientific and political decision-making power to move towards the standardisation of Synthetic Biology. The book proposes simple actions and general lines that allow progress towards the definition of standards. As Manuel Porcar emphasises, “standards are key to any discipline of engineering and synthetic biology cannot be less. It is, therefore, very important to develop biological parts, techniques and protocols that are robust, reliable and universal”.

Standards are everywhere in our civilization, for example, the nuts and bolts, the parts that our cars are made of, or the operating systems that make our computers and mobile phones work. Standards work because they are robust, reliable, and universal. But this is engineering. What about Biotechnology? Biotechnology is an engineering of biological functions beyond those evolved in nature. The most advanced version of Biotechnology is synthetic biology that has the objective of making possible the design and construction of living organisms. To achieve this standardisation, the project of the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union BioRoboost was born.

Over the past three years, a unique combination of 25 entities (21 European and 6 non-European entities) such as research laboratories, social scientists, companies and experts related to Biotechnology from Europe, Asia and the United States, has carried out extensive research work. The University of Valencia actively participates in one of the scientific and technological revolutions that will decide the course of future knowledge.

International representatives from the international, national and local biotechnology industry participated in these meetings, such as the Darwin Bioprospecting Excellence, a spin-off of the University of Valencia to talk about the impact that R & D & I activities have on the future of this industry and the importance of the conclusions reached with BioRoboost. Víctor de Lorenzo (CSIC National Centre for Biotechnology), Elena Ordozgoiti (Spanish Association for Standardisation) and Ángel Fuentes (European Commission) also participated in the presentation.

White Paper: https://standardsinsynbio.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Standardisation-in-Synthetic-ebook.pdf

BioRoboost: https://standardsinsynbio.eu/