Synthetic bugs on the loose: containment options for deeply engineered (micro)organisms

- Synthetic Biology raises new questions re environmental fate of engineered microbes.
- Xenobiology could be the ultimate choice for bringing about certainty-of-containment.
- Gene drive opens unprecedented possibilities to modify natural ecosystems.
- Standardized metrics for quantification of containment efficiencies are badly needed.
- Containment makes risk assessment and IP protection to converge in the same lot.