• About: June 6 Event with Milton Reynolds & Stuart Newman – The Rise of Genetically Modified Humans

    About: June 6 Event with Milton Reynolds & Stuart Newman – The Rise of Genetically Modified Humans

    On June 6, join Milton Reynolds of Facing History and Ourselves in conversation with Stuart Newman as they consider some of the social justice and ethical challenges associated with these developments. In 1997, New York Medical College cell biologist Stuart Newman applied for a patent on what he called a “humanzee” — part human, part […]

  • DEFEAT AB 926

    The Alliance for Human Biotechnology (AHB) is organizing a letter-writing campaign to the California State Senate to oppose  Assembly Bill 926 which authorizes paying young women to undergo egg harvesting to extract their eggs for bio-research. The procedure, which includes taking powerful hormones for weeks, has short term risks (including death) and long term risks […]

  • Principles for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology

    Principles for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology

     Download the complete pdf The undersigned, a broad coalition of civil society groups, social movements, local and indigenous communities, public interest, environmental, scientific, human rights, religious and labor organizations concerned about various aspects of synthetic biology’s human health, environmental , social , economic, ethical and other impacts, offer the following declaration, “The Principles for the […]

  • SITE UPDATE: SynBioWatch.org is growing!

    May 16, 2013. SynBioWatch.org is expanding to include more issue areas and broader participation from the convening organizations. The site navigation and design will be changing over the next few days so if you are a regular visitor, please look forward to new content in an easier to find and navigate form soon. If you […]

  • Synthetic Biology 101 Fact Sheets from Friends of the Earth

    Synthetic Biology 101 Fact Sheets from Friends of the Earth

    Download PDF: Synthetic Biology Fact Sheets In May 2010 J. Craig Venter’s company Synthetic Genomics announced that it had made the world’s first organism with a completely synthetic genome. According to Venter, this organism was the first self-replicating species on the planet whose entire biological makeup was created by a computer.1 While the field of […]

  • ETC & FOE “Kickstopper” Campaign Takes Aim at SynBio Kickstarter Effort to Distribute Synthetically Engineered Seeds

    ETC & FOE “Kickstopper” Campaign Takes Aim at SynBio Kickstarter Effort to Distribute Synthetically Engineered Seeds

    Kickstopper! – Putting a Stop to Synthetic Biology Pollution ETC to launch counter-Kickstarter campaign to prevent release of synthetic organisms At the end of April 2013, ETC Group learned that  three biohackers from the ultra-libertarian Singularity University in California had mounted a project on the popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter. It was a plan  to carry out the […]

  • Mass Release of Synthetically Engineered Plant Seeds via Kickstarter Campaign Draws Protest

    Mass Release of Synthetically Engineered Plant Seeds via Kickstarter Campaign Draws Protest

    An Israeli company seeks to use a loophole in US regulations on genetically engineered plants to conduct a mass release of a genetically modified organism (a glow in the dark Arabidopsis plant) with no regulatory review. Current US regulations, which would apply if the plant were modified using non-synthetic techniques, don’t cover the new gene […]

  • Articles on Human Genetics and Synthetic Biology by Stuart Newman

    In advance of his conversation with Milton Reynolds at East Bay Conversations on June 6, 2013, Stuart Newman shares selected articles he has written over the past 10 years on human genetics and synthetic biology. Stuart Newman received an A.B. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Chicago.  He […]

  • Posters and Flyers on Synthetic Biology

    This page contains a number of posters, flyers, and packets of educational material on the synthetic biology industry and its implications for social, economic, and ecological justice. Simply scroll down to sift through and find what you want, and then follow the links to download. ———————————— To download this poster, click here. _______________________________________ To download […]

  • Ethical variability: Drug development and globalizing clinical trials by Adriana Petryna, New School University

    Published in American Ethnologist  Volume 32 Number 2 May 2005 Globalizing_Clinical_Trials (download pdf) The rapid growth of pharmaceutical markets has led to increased demands for human subjects for drug research, particularly in low-income countries. For regulatory, economic, and even biological reasons, new populations are being pursued as human subjects for pharmaceutical trials. In this article […]