CRISPR revolutionised genome editing. When compared to older techniques, CRISPR machinery has overcome obstacles as efficiency, experimental time and, mainly, expenses. One milestone of this scientific ascension is its power of democratization: to turn available cutting-edge techniques to researchers from different nationalities, distributed worldwide, in a way that everyone has tools to develop research without demanding a great lab structure and huge amounts of investment. This democratic revolution that CRISPR has brought to science is fantastic and goes beyond the importance of promoting science for all. It’s in the building of this future that we will progress faster, not only in discovering of basic aspects and fundamental researchers as in comprehend genes function as far as CRISPR applications that will change our reality, like genetic editing of cancer cells.

A tremendous range of futuristic possibilities can be turned into reality through CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing system. Even with these rapid advances and the vast applications of this technique, it is essential to pave the way to discuss the social and ethical implications of CRISPR, taking into account the impact in the world and society. By standardizing a “toolbox”, CRISPeasy, to be implemented on standardized genome editing in bacteria, we considered fundamental to be aware of it and discuss the implications of our project.

The CRISPeasy toolbox was developed to expand and further facilitate the genome engineering applying standardized BioBricks, reducing the time for designing, assembling and building devices. Therefore, we aim to provide to iGEM community the power of genetic editing in a few steps. We believe that by through applying bioengineering principles, like standardization and abstraction, we can go fast forward.

Fundamental research provides essential outputs, which is, broadly, the knowledge building block for advancing applied research projects. Bo Huang said in an interview for Nature that he and his lab team took two months to adapt CRISPR to image study in his project “Imaging genomic elements in living cells using CRISPR/Cas9”. Thus, he highlighted that if there were as a more basal knowledge, like design optimization of guide RNAs, it would take less time and required fewer struggles.

Then, we could realize the value of “foundational advances”, that contribute so much to improve the technique, regarding its efficiency, off-target effects and to comprehend CRISPR utilization, that over time might be applied to more complexes organisms, as humans and other animals. Until then, CRISPR needs to be even better fundamented.

The encouragement of this kind of research cannot cease since the improvement is continuous. By optimizing (and improving) a specific element of CRISPR, as we did with CRISPeasy toolbox, doesn’t represent the end, but the beginning or continuity to collaborations and related projects. We consider this an important implication of our project.

One of the implications of the development, simplification and free-to-use access, the Foundational Technologies, it’s our exposure to dangers, which can be natural or artificial, caused unexpectedly by bioengineering. However, the analysis of these risks cannot be direct – What? Drew Endy addresses this question in his article “Foundations for Engineering Biology”, and cites as an example the advent of DNA synthesis, that made possible for the Spanish influenza pandemic virus to be “resurrected”. With the article of Trumpey T. M., called “Characterization of the reconstructed 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic virus”, it was possible to understand details about its virulence.

Now, it is possible to make Smallpox genome, with easily accessible DNA sequences. The free-to-use access of these informations allows to construct variants of this vírus, and many others as well. However, the emerging of DNA synthesis could quickly and efficiently come with solutions to these risks, as occurs when we deal with natural biological risks, Through high capacity of response to risks, vaccines and its precursors could be synthetized and about the analysis of these risks, for example, ORF codons of pathogens synthetized and optimized to express recombinant proteins.

Even with this high capacity of analyzing and responding to risks, researchers are not exempted from taking necessary actions to ensure biosafety. It is fundamental to consider carefully the safety implications before and during the research fulfillment. As Andrea Ventura, a researcher at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, tells Nature in interview with Heidi Ledford, it is important to foresee even remote risks and that, when working with lung cancer model in mouses using CRISPR, he had carefully designed guide RNAs that don’t cleave human DNA, highlighting that “It’s not very likely, but still needs to be considered”.

The risk analysis for Foundational Technologies, depend on its applications, that can impact positively or negatively. We saw that these technologies show potential to solve these conceivable risks. In a nearer moment, the most important and certain about these Foundational Technologies is the acceleration of continuous and constructive experimental research. A scientist using technologies that optimize the phase of experimental processing will have an increase in productivity, reducing experimental time and improving the efficiency of research.

The answer to the future when it comes to biosafety does not reside in limiting scientific development and knowledge dissemination through free-to-use access, that way we would be stopping abruptly science’s progress and hindering the discovery of novel treatments and cures in the biomedical field and the improvement of techniques in bioengineering. The answer consists in our agility in detecting, understanding and responding to biological risks, natural or artificial.

It is necessary to put society and scientific community closer since they are intimately related and influence each other. Just as society drives the direction science goes, science also influences society’s lifestyle, in the way we eat, what we think and so on. Jennifer Doduna said in an interview about CRISPR for The Guardian: “History and evidence points to the fact that when we inspire and support our scientific community we advance our way of life and thrive.” Therefore, it is important to keep encouraging society as a whole to support a global community for Synbio and be aware of its importance, so together we can move further to advance bioengineering.

CRISPR made possible the insertion of the Amazon in a scenario of scientific-technological advances. Scientific development in the Amazon is difficult for a number of reasons, including logistics, because it is a region with few possibilities for access and investment, which for science is somewhat limited. There are many research challenges with state-of-the-art technologies in the Brazilian Amazon, because the majority of them has a high cost. In the midst of so many challenges and difficulties, we have been able to carry out state-of-the-art and highly effective research. CRISPR has made this possible, especially for its practicality and low investment cost. This achievement represents scientific-technological advances for the Amazon region, where it is possible to form a network of national collaborators and even international laboratories, drawing attention to this region, which may imply greater investments, more young people in science and development of more complex projects to contribute to a global scientific and social community.

Building Synbio legacy in our community

One of the greatest achievements of Synbio is to be broadly present in diverse backgrounds: from high tech institutes to local communities all around the world. We stand proudly as the first iGEM team to work with CRISPR in Latin America and the first research group to work with it in the Amazon. Therefore, we felt the urge to implement the first building block of Synbio (and CRISPR) in our community, through educational engagement.

On our community, we raised awareness for Synbio and the significance of building foundational advances to standardize CRISPR, through broadcasted interviews and social media, highlighting CRISPR as a revolutionary technique that has plenty of potentials to solve real-world problems. To the academic community, we kept promoting Synbio principles, by giving lectures and workshops introducing concepts such as biological parts and standardization. We also mobilized all spheres of society into discussing the importance of science and its role as powerful and transforming tool to improve human life and the world, by organizing the March for Science at our city, in partnership with Brazilian Society For Science’s Progress (SBPC in portuguese).

Our team and everyone who engaged at the March For Science in Manaus, capital of Amazonas state.

In addition, we tried not to stick only to our regional community, but in showing the world what the Amazon has to offer in terms of Synbio and cutting-edge technologies. By lecturing at Campus Party - the biggest event of technology in the world - we’ve got the chance to reach a more distinct audience than that we were used to since Campus Party is more appealing to a public which has a technologic background but not necessarily a biotech one. For the first time, many of these people from different scenarios heard about CRISPR and its outstanding perspectives, and that all of this revolution in genome editing is not strictly happening in the biggest institutes of research in the world, but in the Brazilian Amazon as well.