In April, a consortium led by the global health NGO PATH — and comprising the University of California, Berkeley, synthetic biology company Amyris and pharmaceutical firm Sanofi — announced the first industrial production of ‘semi-synthetic artemisinin’.
The consortium called this “a pivotal milestone in the fight against malaria” and “a triumph for synthetic biology”. The project has certainly helped to brand synthetic biology as a revolutionary new field of science that could “heal us, heat and feed us” — but the extent to which it will deliver benefits to people in countries burdened with malaria is debatable.
The role of interlinked technological, economic, social and political factors has been overlooked, at least in public communication about the project.
Read the full, original story here: Synthetic biology’s malaria promises could backfire
