The BioBricks Foundation (BBF) is a not-for-profit organization founded by engineers and scientists from MIT, Harvard, and UCSF with significant experience in both non-profit and commercial biotechnology research. BBF encourages the development and responsible use of technologies based on BioBrick™ standard DNA parts that encode basic biological functions.
Using BioBrick™ standard biological parts, a synthetic biologist or biological engineer can already, to some extent, program living organisms in the same way a computer scientist can program a computer. The DNA sequence information and other characteristics of BioBrick™ standard biological parts are made available to the public free of charge currently via MIT’s Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
Any individual or organization is welcome to design, improve, and contribute BioBrick™ standard biological parts to the Registry. For example, in the summer of 2007, over 600 students and instructors at 60+ universities around the world are making, sharing, and using BioBrick™ standard biological parts as part of the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition.
Currently, The BioBricks Foundation’s goals are:
* to develop and implement legal strategies to ensure that BioBrick™ standard biological parts remain freely available to the public;
* to encourage the development of codes of standard practice for the use of BioBrick™ standard biological parts; and
* to develop and provide educational and scientific materials to allow the public to use and improve existing BioBrick™ standard biological parts, and contribute new BioBrick™ standard biological parts.
