Engineering biology creates sustainable solutions from nature’s building blocks

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narrator: have you ever looked at a process or product and thought, we can make this better?

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synthetic biology or engineering biology combines engineering and biology to design completely new products.

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the technology can be used to produce food with less resources; grow lower emission building materials; and produce better, stronger, smarter products, reducing our footprint on the planet.

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have you ever tried an animal free burger thats made with proteins created by yeast cells?

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or seen leather like fabrics made from fungi?

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engineering biology is brewing fibres from natural products like spider silk to replace synthetic fibres. The new synbio fibres are stronger, softer and biodegradable.

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the technology is able to manufacture pharmaceuticals more cheaply and efficiently, with lower environmental impact.

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the possibilities are endless; new products and industries and more jobs;

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better, healthier food; safer more sustainable chemicals, metals and plastics;

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new biological products that can remove pollution from the environment or speed up critical medical processes.

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csiro has achieved a lot over the last six years but were only just scratching the surface. We built the csiro biofoundry, a state-of-the-art robotic bioengineering facility.

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we can rapidly design, build and test new cellular factories on a massive scale.

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what used to take years now takes months or weeks. Potentially world changing technology requires people from all areas of science and technology and many broader disciplines to contribute their expertise.

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we must work together to reimagine new systems and new products and to create a truly circular economy. We need you.

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from food and agriculture, to health, medicine, defence and manufacturing,

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csiros roadmap has shown there are huge social, environmental and economic opportunities for australia.

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when developed responsibly, engineering biology can help us address and overcome the biggest challenges of our time.

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narrator: synthetic biology or engineering biology is a frontier technology.

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we design solutions to problems and useful products from the building blocks of life using dna as the blueprint.

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engineering biology can produce new, better, more sustainable products.

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but just because something can be done, should it?

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every time we push forward with new science and technology, when we explore new research or new products, new industries, and completely new systems, we ask, is society informed about the potential risks and benefits?

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will it be safe? Who is responsible if something goes wrong? Will this change create inequities in society? Who is being exposed to the risks? Who gets to choose what innovations progress?.

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at csiro we are focussed on innovation done responsibly.

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we consider what could happen if and when new science and technology is introduced into the world.

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understanding what might make something acceptable or not is important so that researchers and innovators can design new products that meet the needs of societies.

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the stakes have never been higher.

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to help solve some of australias and the world's greatest challenges we need innovation more than ever.

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by carefully considering the impacts and risks before we deploy solutions at scale, we can ensure that engineering biology products can benefit all australians.

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narrator: plastic is incredible but it also causes lots of problems when it is discarded as it doesnt rapidly break down. Plastic litters the environment, particularly our oceans.

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csiros goal is an 80% reduction in plastic waste entering the australian environment by 2030.

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one way to reduce plastic waste is to treat existing plastic as a resource, not a problem.

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pet plastics are one example of a recyclable plastic.

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but current mainstream recycling technology doesnt produce the same quality pet plastic, so it can only be used for a limited range of products.

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synthetic biology or engineering biology is tackling this problem.

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with new enzyme technologies being developed at csiro to degrade a range of plastics we could better manage environmental pollution and improve recycling.

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enzymes are proteins that speed up chemical reactions.

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scientists have discovered that organisms can evolve new enzymes to break down unfamiliar chemicals or materials in their environments like plastics.

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our scientists can take those naturally produced enzymes and make them even better at the jobs we want them to do using engineering biology.

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in this case, breaking down plastic to its building blocks so it can be reused to make a bigger range of high-quality products and reduce plastic waste.

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this technology will improve sustainability by addressing plastic waste and reducing the need to make new plastic from petrochemicals, reducing the plastic entering the system and more effectively reusing whats already here.

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this is how we build a circular economy and create new industries, creating safer, plastic free oceans for our marine life and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts.

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narrator: think about what you use every day.

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things like food, clothes, housing, medical devices, transport and energy.

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many materials, chemicals and fibres are made from non-renewable products and petrochemicals, oil and gas. Making them produces harmful pollutants that get into our air, water and soil.

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and our systems for managing waste and resources are struggling to keep pace.

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but synthetic biology or engineering biology is allowing us to create new biobased products that are better and more sustainable.

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its not just production, engineering biology could also revolutionise the way we break down waste and even clean up chemical spills.

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were partnering with universities, businesses and governments to create solutions and new products.

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one example is creating new cells and organisms that can identify contaminants and respond by releasing enzymes to break them down.

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lets talk about how we could better manage food waste using engineering biology.

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some food scraps go into landfill or home composting.

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some scraps can be processed in large scale factories where they are digested by black soldier fly larvae.

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the larvae are then converted into animal feed, a sustainable solution but it could be better.

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this system has a lot of potential but a major challenge for the fly larvae is the contaminants. Things like plastics, pesticides or toxic chemicals.

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using engineering biology we give these fly larvae a boost so they can deal with these contaminants.

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this means engineering the insects to be able to make and excrete new enzymes to break down waste and chemicals, making fly larvae even more impressive waste superheroes.

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this technology opens doors to create other organisms, ones that can deal with contaminants and produce new, naturally made enzymes and products,

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making the things we use every day better and more sustainable.

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