• The BBF is a public-benefit organization — we unite a community of engineers, scientists, attorneys, innovators, entrepreneurs, and others dedicated to advancing synthetic biology to benefit all people and the planet.
• We believe that synthetic biology is absolutely pivotal to developing and advancing solutions to some of the most pressing 0challenges facing our planet and mankind.
• We think that engineering biology using traditional methods is unnecessarily complex and expensive. And it can take literally decades to yield solutions.
• We want to make biotechnology easier and more affordable at the same time that we make it safer and more open.
• By doing so, we can accelerate the pace of innovation, collapse development timelines and speed time-to-market of inventive synthetic biology-based solutions while fostering the ethical use of the technology.
• To achieve this, we must make the fundamental building blocks of synthetic biology — BioBrick™ parts — freely available for open innovation. This means that instead of innovating in silos and constantly reinventing the wheel, biotechnologists can work together to easily and freely tap into existing tools, benefit from known technologies, and collaborate with others to build inventive solutions with greater speed and efficiency
• This is a new paradigm for biotech research. A model enabled by a sophisticated infrastructure of programs and initiatives, and a highly engaged global community of biotech professionals – individuals, corporations, institutions and others with common values and shared goals.
• While we’re at a developing stage, we’re already producing results. The first professional standard biological parts are rolling off the BIOFAB production line. BIOFAB is one of the BBF’s first key professional programs.
• The elements of what we’re doing are not new. We’re simply borrowing strategies and protocols that have worked well in other industries. But combining ideas like open technology platforms and technical standards is a revolutionary concept for biotechnology that when combined allows many people to work together. We’re essentially infusing biotech research with an engineering mindset. This means that instead of developing one solution for one particular near-term application [per the common scientific research model], we’re encouraging the development of foundational tools that can be used to develop solutions for myriad problems. It’s a “solutions-driven” research model that’s optimized for efficiency, scalability and cost advantages.
• We support public-benefit and for-profit development activity. We believe that making the world a better place AND making money don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
• What makes us truly unique is our focus on standardizing BioBrick™ parts. This has never been done before. We’re also the only organization actively developing industry standards for biotechnology. And we’re the first to stage the world.
• We cherish integrity, honesty and inclusiveness. We believe that these core values don’t just inspire big thinking and a healthy cross-fertilization of ideas; they are absolutely imperative for engineering biology to be conducted ethically and safely.
• Our supporters are many and include corporations, individuals, institutions, foundations, government, corporations, and others.
