Current Research in Biotechnology 7 (2024) 100188 Available online 16 February 2024 2590-2628/© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Organizational change of synthetic biology research: Emerging initiatives advancing a bottom-up approach Renan Gonçalves Leonel da Silva a, * , Jakob Schweizer b , Kalina Kamenova c , Larry Au d , Alessandro Blasimme a , Effy Vayena a a Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland b Max Plank Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany c Canadian Institute for Genomics and Society, Toronto, Canada d Department of Sociology, The City College of New York, New York, NY, United States A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Bottom-up synthetic biology Organizational change Science and technology studies Multi-method qualitative research Knowledge infrastructures Scientific governance ABSTRACT Bottom-up Synthetic Biology (buSynBio) is an approach focused on the artificial making of minimal functional biosynthetic systems by recombining existent biochemical modules or manufacturing them from scratch. Over the last decade, this emerging orientation has gained new momentum with the development of new bioengi- neering tools, theories, and technologies. Despite the growing acceptance of buSynBio, few studies have dedi- cated attention to the analysis of its organizational aspects. This article offers the first systematic investigation of emerging research initiatives in buSynBio and their meaning to bioengineering research. Our analysis is based on a multi-method qualitative study, including expert literature review, bibliometric research and a documentary analysis of online materials such as reports and project descriptions available in official grant data repositories. Our study found that publications of specialized articles on “bottom-up synthetic biology” have increased, both in absolute numbers and normalized to total number of publications. We show how that might be enabled by novel mechanisms of organization that reposition material, intellectual and political resources in synthetic biology. Drawing on theoretical analyses within Science and Technology Studies (STS), we examine 14 research initiatives in 5 selected countries (Germany, United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands, and Switzerland). The bottom-up approach is supported by a variety of “tentative regimes” of scientific governance in different stages of consolidation, but holding in common the establishment of novel basic research in Chemistry, Biology, Engi- neering and Physics. The study aims to contribute to social science research in synthetic biology by shedding light on the implications of buSynBio as trend driving the current organizational change of bioengineering research. Introduction On March 7, 2022, The New Yorker featured an article titled “A Journey to the Center of Our Cells”, which highlighted advances in research that manipulates “the fundamental unit of life”. As per the article, multiple teams of “synthetic biologists” are approaching the point to construct living cells from nonliving components. The article boldly claims that if we can design and regulate these cells with preci- sion, we can employ them to accomplish our desired objectives. It further discusses achievements at J. Craig Venter Institute in the United States such as the development of a bio-hybrid component baptized as “JCVI-syn3A” and the first “minimal cell” generated from a gene editing and bioengineering of a bacteria (Somers, 2022). In light of this renewed interest in synthetic biology, the examination of key developments in the organization of this field is critical (Meng and Ellis, 2020). Synthetic Biology (SynBio) is an international academic endeavor of life sciences research that aims to understand basic oper- ating physical–chemical principles of living organisms through the reconstruction of minimal functional biological systems (Deplazes, 2009; Anderson et al., 2012; Trump et al., 2018). Since the 2000s, the field has gained much attention from social scientists and people from Science and Technology Studies (STS), specifically addressing issues * Corresponding author at: Health Ethics and Policy Lab, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich, Hottingerstrasse 10, HOA 17, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland. E-mail address: leonnelrg@gmail.com (R.G.L. da Silva). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Current Research in Biotechnology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/crbiot https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crbiot.2024.100188 Received 18 January 2024; Received in revised form 30 January 2024; Accepted 2 February 2024