Kavli Futures Symposium Report

Appendix IV

Final Round Table

At the end of the meeting, the participants were asked each to specify which question, issue or objective they considered to be the single most important in this area, and also which idea or objective currently being considered that they felt would not pan out. Here are the responses (in arbitrary order of participants). (Note that Ehud Shapiro had to leave early.)

The Big Question

Bob Austin: Is the response of collections of single cells to other cells different from what a single cell does?

John Glass: Can life be made using component chemicals?

Jay Keasling: We need a microorganism that will produce fuel from biomass.

David Bensimon: How does evolution work?

Angela Belcher: We need biological processes for making fuels

Petra Schwille: Can we make a self-replicating system from ‘minimal’ components?

Paul McEuen: Can we make artificial organelles from inorganic components?

Cees Dekker: Can we develop a bottom-up biology?

Drew Endy: We need therapies or vaccines against infectious agents that are fully encoded in information and can be manufactured locally.

Hiroaki Kitano: We need to create complex systems from a distributed approach. And can we ‘terraform’ planetary environments?

Julie Theriot: We need to develop fine spatial control of bio/synthetic systems.

Scott Fraser: We need to improve methods of interfacing and readout.

Steve Chu: We need to figure out how the ribosome works.

Joe Howard: How do organisms measure the size of things?

Bob Hazen: We need to make self-replicating chemical systems – but not necessarily ‘living cells’ from scratch.

 

The False Trail

Bob Austin: Moore’s Law and digital computers are overhyped.

John Glass: Personalized medicine.

Jay Keasling: The problems foreseen for creating a valuable and safe synthetic biology won’t materialize if we put enough effort into avoiding or overcoming them.

David Bensimon: The artificial creation of life from scratch.

Angela Belcher: The necessary educational system is not being supported.

Petra Schwille: We won’t create artificial life from scratch.

Freeman Dyson: The minimal genome.

Paul McEuen: Energy generation will remain inorganic.

Cees Dekker: Systems biology.

Drew Endy: There will be more active participation in the development of technologies.

Julie Theriot: Personalized medicine.

Scott Fraser: Pure ‘design’ solutions to an organism or biological circuit.

Steve Chu: The biomimetic part of the energy problem won’t work.

Joe Howard: Systems biology.

Bob Hazen: We will find no clear evidence for life on Mars.