Karmella Haynes
The public supports synthetic biology endeavors through tax dollars and private funding. The social mission of this action plan is to optimize the return on this public investment by facilitating the transformation of synthetic biology research into widely accessible information to support the development of new technologies. It describes the development of an incentive-driven platform to stimulate and sustain crowd-sourced data sharing. This information will support future synthetic biology endeavors and the livelihoods of students and trainees in the field. Biosafety and biosecurity specialists will use this platform for interrogation and regulation of synthetic biology practices in order to mitigate potential harm. The scientific mission of this plan is to overcome barriers in the path toward the design of living systems by enabling cooperative, community-driven characterization of compatible (or incompatible) biological components.