THE SYNTHETIC YEAST PROJECT AS A TOPIC FOR SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION

The synthetic yeast project (Sc2.0) is a visible example of the recent rise in prominence of eukaryotic synthetic biology. Drawing on an analysis of news stories, scientific papers, and our involvement with the scientific community, we describe the synthetic yeast project and some of its precursors, and we identify the technical, social and conceptual issues that we find particularly salient as researchers in Science and Technology Studies. We discuss the 'design principles' that are central to the project, and how these align Sc2.0 with the mainstream engineering agenda in synthetic biology. We identify the project's preference for openness regarding intellectual property, and compare this to ownership approaches in other branches of synthetic biology. We also argue that a study of yeast encourages us to consider more explicitly the spatial and temporal dimensions of the organisms used in synthetic biology. We conclude that social scientific investigation into the synthetic yeast project raises important questions that will help us better understand the movement of synthetic biology into more complex organisms and systems, and assist us in further exploring the tensions between engineering and biology that are central to this emerging field.