Drew Endy (born 1970) is a synthetic biologist.
He was a junior fellow for 3 years and later an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. In September 2008, he moved to Palo Alto to become an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. Silicon Valley's concentration of computer scientists and engineers, in addition to Stanford's broad focus on engineering as well as ethics and the humanities, are believed to be the main reason for his move according to press reports. His wife Christina Smolke moved from the California Institute of Technology to Stanford in January 2009.
With Thomas Knight, Gerald Jay Sussman, and other researchers at MIT, Endy is working on synthetic biology and the engineering of standardized biological components, devices, and parts, collectively known as BioBricks. Endy is one of several founders of the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, and invented an abstraction hierarchy for integrated genetic systems.
Endy is also known for his opposition to limited ownership and support of free access to genetic information. He has been one of the early promoters of open source biology, and helped start the Biobricks Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that will work to support open-source biology. He was also a co-founder of the now defunct Codon Devices, a biotechnology startup company that aimed to commercialize synthetic biology.
In his 2009 book, Denialism How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives, Michael Specter called Endy ‘synthetic biology’s most compelling evangelist’ as he is persistent on discussing the prospects and dangers of synthetic biology on nearly any forum. According to Endy, the prospects of synthetic biology will allow programming living organisms in the same way a computer scientist program a software and computer, designing and making a disposable biological system and a manufacturing platform, even one’s own offspring or own copy with improved traits such as to prevent occurrence of disease, and bypassing evolution. The dangers lie in the unknown things that this technology will produce, who will control the technology, pay for it, the ethical and cultural impact, the safety issues and how the whole value system work. Endy is reflective and engaged in the possible risks of this field. He advocates dialogue and a serious discussion on the ‘contract’ on engineering biology with the society. It should be a national strategic priority on advancing the potential benefits of the synthetic biology technology, while accepting that risk is inevitable rather than fixating on theoretical risk.
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