Joy Zhang

I greatly appreciated the thoughtful discussions at the Technical Workshop on Mirror Life (a report will follow soon). It was also a real pleasure to chair the half-day open panel on Safeguarding Synthetic Life at the Engineering and Safeguarding Synthetic Life 2025 conference.

Working with such an interdisciplinary panel—Sophie Gilbert, David Relman, Laurie Zoloth, and James Smith, with additional contributions from John Glass and Hiroaki Suga—was a highlight. Each speaker was invited not only for their complementary expertise but also for their willingness to be provocative in generating balanced and reflexive ideas.

Although the session carried the title ‘Safeguarding Synthetic Life’, we designed it with the expectation that discussions would centre on mirror life, a very specific strand within the broader field of synthetic cell research. At the outset, I stressed that when speaking about “synthetic life” more generally—whose definition remains open to diverse scientific interpretations—we must also recognise an important ethical dimension: for the beings we create, we bear an obligation of care.

The recording of this session will be made available, and I hope it will spark a more balanced and reflexive dialogue among broader publics beyond the conference room.

It was also lovely to reconnect with colleagues at the 3rd Japan–UK Engineering Biology Meeting, and be able to hop over to the BBSRC Engineering Biology Mission Hubs and Mission Awards Science Showcase to spent a couple of hours with my ELEMENTAL family!

Finally, huge thanks and congratulations to Patrick Cai and his team for pulling off a hat-trick of superb events in a single week!