Synthetic Microbiology Beyond Containment

Principal themes and objectives. This workshop aims at revisiting the release into the  environment of synthetic microbes developed or trained in the laboratory across diYerent biotechnological domains. We will explore both emergent technologies and new narratives in which the fundamental challenge is not control and containment, but the  integration and coexistence of laboratory-developed biological agents within the ecology and physicochemical environment of the sites that receive them. The overall objective is therefore two-fold: to review the current state of aYairs from a scientific perspective, and to provide new conceptual and technical tools to decision makers at the local and international levels. A clear framework will enable them to adapt regulations on the release of synthetic microbes to the realities of the climate crisis and to new knowledge  about microbial ecology. This knowledge supports a return to ideas first proposed in the early years of genetic engineering but never fully implemented…