Reconfiguring the Challenge of Biological Complexity as a Resource for Biodesign

  • Szymanski E
  • Henriksen J
4Citations
Citations of this article
8Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Biological complexity is widely seen as the central, intractable challenge of engineering biology. Yet this challenge has been constructed through the field’s dominant metaphors.Biological complexity is widely seen as the central, intractable challenge of engineering biology. Yet this challenge has been constructed through the field’s dominant metaphors. Alternative ways of thinking—latent in progressive experimental approaches, but rarely articulated as such—could instead position complexity as engineering biology’s greatest resource. We outline how assumptions about engineered microorganisms have been built into the field, carried by entrenched metaphors, even as contemporary methods move beyond them. We suggest that alternative metaphors would better align engineering biology’s conceptual infrastructure with the field’s move away from conventionally engineering-inspired methods toward biology-centric ones. Innovating new conceptual frameworks would also enable better aligning scientific work with higher-level conversations about that work. Such innovation—thinking about how engineering microbes might be more like user-centered design than like programming a computer or building a car—could highlight complexity as a resource to leverage, not a problem to erase or negate.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Szymanski, E. A., & Henriksen, J. (2022). Reconfiguring the Challenge of Biological Complexity as a Resource for Biodesign. MSphere, 7(6). https://doi.org/10.1128/msphere.00547-22

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free