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formation of ever new concepts. The levels of abstraction that humans can manage are also

far higher than in animals. It is true that in individual aspects other highly developed

brains, especially in mammals and birds, can keep up here - but in the integrative overall

performance definitely not.

13.3

Innovation: Synthetic Biology

Building on this background, one can of course also see our human society, including

technology, as the field par excellence in which ever new levels of language are also cre­

ated using technical aids. Strictly speaking, this is the reason why bioinformatics is pos­

sible at all. We are now consciously learning the molecular languages of life. But because

this would otherwise be too complex for us, we use our own tool, the computer, to decode

them and thus achieve an unprecedented direct link between these different languages.

Interestingly, however, this can be applied even more strongly to biology.

In this chapter, we will first consider the new levels that technical communication

brings, with both the computer and the Internet of course being particularly impressive

examples of information processing, both of which are essential to bioinformatics.

In the meantime, however, bioinformatics has brought to light some astonishing cross-­

links between molecular information processing and computers. The technical use of bio­

logical processes is generally referred to as synthetic biology, a field of biology that is

currently growing rapidly.

The focus is on achieving something new, on solving technical problems much better

and innovatively by combining (molecular) biology and technology (usually computer

technology, nanotechnology, modern chemistry or molecular sciences). It used to be inno­

vative to use new organisms for biotechnology (since the 1980s, patenting of molecular

cloning of genes in plasmid rings by Prof. Cohen, Stanford University (Stanford

Universität)). This is indeed still being pursued and advanced. However, it has long been

recognized that this is very useful for the production of substances (e.g. insulin, citric acid,

antibiotics, etc.), but to see “new kinds of life” at the center is nonsensical. We do not have

sufficient knowledge to achieve anything useful here, nor would we be able to ensure that

there are not undesirable side effects on ecosystems or control of these new life forms.

Even in the design of synthetic organisms, therefore, special attention is paid nowadays to

these safety aspects, which are also easy to comply with in practice. For example, erythro­

poietin (a very useful hormone that stimulates blood formation and, for example, helps the

sick person with severe kidney disease to be able to produce enough red blood cells) is

produced in proprietary fermenters that provide the optimum temperature and medium for

bacterial production, and the bacteria are not viable outside this environment. The focus of

today’s synthetic biology is thus the improved solution to a technical problem by merging

different areas of technology with biology.

13.3  Innovation: Synthetic Biology