Reflexive Systems Biology

Reflexive Systems Biology: towards an Appreciation of Biological, Scientific and Ethical Complexity

The ambitions of systems biology and synthetic biology are often stated in terms of prediction, control, design and fabrication of organisms. If possible, the ethical and social aspects involved would be huge, including those of biosafety and biosecurity. In this advanced project Science and Technology Studies will be combined with theoretical biology/complexity theory in order to clarify and assess the ambitions of systems biology and their implications. This will be achieved by an interdisciplinary dialogue approach across the natural and social sciences. In this way, the project aims at contributing to a socially robust systems biology, in which scientific practitioners develop and act upon a reflexive understanding of their own role.