Larry McCray and Rocco Casagrande served on a panel on the social aspects of synthetic biology on October 11 at the National Institutes of Health.

The meeting was convened jointly by the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity and the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee [RAC]. McCray and Casagrande addressed emerging policy issues in biosafety and biosecurity. The two committees are considering whether and how synthetic biology requires new safeguards. About 60 persons attended the meeting.