New MBL study analyses the state of SynBio in the Czech Republic
Our new study "Building the SynBio community in the Czech Republic from the bottom up: You get what you give" was published in Biotechnology Notes. The work analyses the current state and perception of synthetic biology in the Czech Republic. Take-home message: The Czech Republic has all necessary prerequisites to become a local Synthetic Biology leader, but it has not leveraged this potential thus far. SynBio is still a rather marginal discipline nurtured by the interest of a small number of enthusiasts and visionaries. In this commentary article, we explore the possible causes of this state and document the current position of the recently born SynBio community in our country. Our investigation suggests that the seemingly unsatisfactory situation is largely due to the lack of use of the term Synthetic Biology in the academic, private, and public domains. The country can otherwise benefit from the relatively strong (bio)technological background and the growing number of companies and academic and research units that use bioengineering and SynBio approaches for fundamental research or to produce competitive biotechnologies.
