Biology underpins sustainable solutions to many of the challenges facing our planet. Our planet is facing unprecedented threats to its long-term sustainability: climate change and its impacts on food security; the emergence and spread of new infections; a growing, and greying, population with complex healthcare needs; ever-growing demand for more sustainable sources of feed, fuel and consumable goods. Our School, one of the largest communities of biological researchers in the UK, is bringing together its diverse strengths to confront the following three broad global challenges. We have called this project ‘Building a New Biology’ and it underpins everything we do. The Biology of our Changing World We can monitor, analyse and then predict how biological systems might mitigate the potentially negative consequences of changes in their environment. The Biology of Health and Disease By understanding the information encoded in genomes we can better predict, treat or otherwise alleviate diseases of plants and animals. Engineering Biology for Health and Wealth Using engineering principles we can redesign biology to create transformative and sustainable products for our growing population. Image Credit: Getty images This article was published on 2024-06-17
