3 Questions: Phillip Sharp on new biology
Last week, a panel co-chaired by MIT Institute Professor Phillip Sharp called for the United States to launch a new biology initiative to accelerate breakthroughs that could solve some of society's most pressing problems. The National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy asked the committee that wrote the report — which included MIT Professor Douglas Lauffenburger — to look at how best to build upon recent scientific developments such as the Human Genome Project. The resulting report is called "A New Biology for the 21st Century: Ensuring the United States Leads the Coming Biology Revolution." In this interview, Sharp explains his vision for the initiative, which has a proposed timeline of 10 years. Q: What societal challenges do you think the new biology initiative should tackle? A: First, there's energy — how to achieve sustainable energy in forms that can be transported and...