On Biological Technologies, Economics, and Security (chronological)

DARPA Open Source Biology Letter, Robert Carlson and Roger Brent, 2001. (PDF)

 "Biololgical Technology in 2050", Robert Carlson, 2000. (PDF) Published as "Open-Source Biology and its Impact on Industry", IEEE Spectrum, May, 2001.

 "The Pace and Proliferation of Biological Technologies", (PDF) Robert Carlson, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, September 2003, 1(3): 203-214. 

"Synthetic Biology 1.0", Robert Carlson, Future Brief, 2005.

"Splice It Yourself", Rob Carlson, Wired, May 2005.

"Genome Synthesis and Design Futures: Implications for the US Economy", James Newcomb, Robert Carlson, Steven Aldrich, Bio Economic Research Associates, 2007.

"Laying the foundations of a bio-economy", Robert Carlson, Systems and Synthetic Biology, August 2007, 1(3).

"Scenarios for the Future of Synthetic Biology", Stephen Aldrich, James Newcomb, Robert Carlson. Industrial Biotechnology. March 2008, 4(1): 39-49.

"The Big Squeeze: New Fundamentals for Food and Fuel Markets", Stephen C. Aldrich, James Newcomb, Robert Carlson, Bio Economic Research Associates, June 2008.

"Tracking the spread of biological technologies", Robert Carlson, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 21 November 2008.

"The New Biofactories", Robert Carlson, in What Matters, McKinsey Publishing, McKinsey and Company, 2009.

"The Market Value of GM Crops", Robert Carlson, Nature Biotechnology, 27, 984 (2009).

"The Changing Economics of DNA Synthesis", Robert Carlson, Nature Biotechnology, 27, 1091 - 1094 (2009).

Biology is Technology: The Promise, Peril, and New Business of Engineering Life, Robert Carlson, 2010, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

"Building a 21st Century Bioeconomy: Fostering Economic and Physical Security Through Public-Private Partnerships and a National Network of Community Labs", Robert Carlson, 2011, for OSTP/EOP (PDF).

"Garage Innovation", Rob Carlson, The Scientist, 25(1), p. 24, 1 January, 2011.

"Microbrewing the Bioeconomy", Robert Carlson and Rik Wehbring, Biodesic Technical Note 20110210_01, Feb 2011

"Staying Sober about Science," Robert Carlson, Hastings Center Report, 41, no. 4: 22-25, 2011. 

"Causes and Consequences of Bioeconomic Proliferation: Implications for U.S. Physical and Economic Security", Robert Carlson, Biodefense Net Assessment 2012, Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute.

"The Military's Push To Green Our Explosives", Robert Carlson and Dan Grushkin, Slate, Jan, 2012.

"How will synthetic biology and conservation shape the future of nature?", Kent H. Redford, William Adams, Georgina Mace, Rob Carlson, Steve Sanderson, Framing Paper for International Meeting, Wildlife Conservation Society, April 2013.

"From national security to natural security", Robert Carlson, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 11 Dec 2013.

"Estimating the biotech sector's contribution to the US economy", Robert Carlson, Nature Biotechnology, 34, 247–255 (2016), 10 March 2016.

“Biotechnology’s possibilities”, Robert Carlson, in Megatech: Technology in 2050, ed, Daniel Franklin, The Economist Press, 2016.

"The Genome Project-Write", Jef D. Boeke, George Church, Andrew Hessel, Nancy J. Kelley, Adam Arkin, Yizhi Cai, Rob Carlson, Aravinda Chakravarti, Virginia W. Cornish, Liam Holt, Farren J. Isaacs, Todd Kuiken, Marc Lajoie, Tracy Lessor, Jeantine Lunshof, Matthew T. Maurano, Leslie A. Mitchell, Jasper Rine, Susan Rosser, Neville E. Sanjana, Pamela A. Silver, David Valle, Harris Wang, Jeffrey C. Way, Luhan Yang, Science, 8 Jul 2016, Vol. 353, Issue 6295, pp. 126-127.

“Random access in large-scale DNA data storage”, Lee Organick, Siena Dumas Ang, Yuan-Jyue Chen, Randolph Lopez, Sergey Yekhanin, Konstantin Makarychev, Miklos Z Racz, Govinda Kamath, Parikshit Gopalan, Bichlien Nguyen, Christopher N Takahashi, Sharon Newman, Hsing-Yeh Parker, Cyrus Rashtchian, Kendall Stewart, Gagan Gupta, Robert Carlson, John Mulligan, Douglas Carmean, Georg Seelig, Luis Ceze & Karin Strauss, Nature Biotechnology, volume 36, pp.242–248 (2018).

Congressional Testimony by Robert Carlson, U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Research and Technology. 12 March, 2019, “Engineering Our Way to a Sustainable Bioeconomy” (PDF). Answers to Follow Up Questions Submitted by Chairwoman Haley Stevens, Robert Carlson (PDF).

Written remarks, Robert Carlson, White House Bioeconomy Summit (PDF), 7 October, 2019; Official Summit Summary from White House (PDF).

“Two Worlds, Two Bioeconomies: The Impacts of Decoupling US–China Trade and Technology Transfer”, Rob Carlson and Rik Wehbring, Johns Hopkins National Security Report, 2020.

“Beyond Biological Defense: Maintaining the U.S. Biotechnology Advantage”, Rob Carlson, Chad Sbragia, and Kate Sixt, War On The Rocks, 14 September, 2021.

“Spatially Selective Electrochemical Cleavage of a Polymerase-Nucleotide Conjugate”, Jake A. Smith, Bichlien H. Nguyen, Robert Carlson, J. Bertram, Sebastian Palluk, Daniel H Arlow, and K. Strauss, ACS Synthetic Biology, 16 May 2023.

(Mostly) Complete Publication List (reverse chronological)

Jake A. Smith, Bichlien H. Nguyen, Robert Carlson, J. Bertram, Sebastian Palluk, Daniel H Arlow, and K. Strauss, “Spatially Selective Electrochemical Cleavage of a Polymerase-Nucleotide Conjugate”, ACS Synthetic Biology, 12, 6, 16 May 2023.

Bichlien H. Nguyen, Christopher N. Takahashi, Gagan Gupta, Jake A. Smith, Richard Rouse, Paul Berndt, Sergey Yekhanin, David P. Ward, Siena D. Ang, Patrick Garvan, Hsing-Yeh Parker, Rob Carlson, Douglas Carmean, Luis Ceze, Karin Strauss, “Scaling DNA data storage with nanoscale electrode wells”, Science Advances, 7(48), 24 November 2021.

Rob Carlson, Chad Sbragia, and Kate Sixt, “Beyond Biological Defense: Maintaining the U.S. Biotechnology Advantage”, War On The Rocks, 14 September, 2021.

Upward Farms Technical White Paper, Rob Carlson, May, 2021 (PDF).

Rob Carlson and Rik Wehbring, “Two Worlds, Two Bioeconomies: The Impacts of Decoupling US–China Trade and Technology Transfer”, Johns Hopkins National Security Report, 2020.

Lee Organick, Siena Dumas Ang, Yuan-Jyue Chen, Randolph Lopez, Sergey Yekhanin, Konstantin Makarychev, Miklos Z Racz, Govinda Kamath, Parikshit Gopalan, Bichlien Nguyen, Christopher N Takahashi, Sharon Newman, Hsing-Yeh Parker, Cyrus Rashtchian, Kendall Stewart, Gagan Gupta, Robert Carlson, John Mulligan, Douglas Carmean, Georg Seelig, Luis Ceze & Karin Strauss, “Random access in large-scale DNA data storage”. Nature Biotechnology, volume 36, pp.242–248 (2018).

Jef D. Boeke, George Church, Andrew Hessel, Nancy J. Kelley, Adam Arkin, Yizhi Cai, Rob Carlson, Aravinda Chakravarti, Virginia W. Cornish, Liam Holt, Farren J. Isaacs, Todd Kuiken, Marc Lajoie, Tracy Lessor, Jeantine Lunshof, Matthew T. Maurano, Leslie A. Mitchell, Jasper Rine, Susan Rosser, Neville E. Sanjana, Pamela A. Silver, David Valle, Harris Wang, Jeffrey C. Way, Luhan Yang, "The Genome Project-Write", Science, 8 Jul 2016, Vol. 353, Issue 6295, pp. 126-127.

Robert Carlson, "Estimating the biotech sector's contribution to the US economy", Nature Biotechnology, 34, 247–255 (2016), 10 March 2016.

Robert Carlson, “Biotechnology’s possibilities”, in Megatech: Technology in 2050, ed, Daniel Franklin, The Economist Press, 2016.

Kent H. Redford, William Adams, Rob Carlson, Bertina Ceccarelli, “Synthetic biology and the conservation of biodiversity”, Oryx, 48(3), 330–336, 2014.

Robert Carlson, "Considering The Future of Reading and Writing DNA", in Synthetic Biology, Ed. Christina Smolke, Wiley, In press.

Kent H. Redford, William Adams, Georgina Mace, Rob Carlson, Steve Sanderson, "How will synthetic biology and conservation shape the future of nature?", Framing Paper for International Meeting, Wildlife Conservation Society, April 2013.

Robert Carlson, "Biodesic 2011 Bioeconomy Update", Biodesic Technical Note 20110811_01, Aug, 2011.

"Garage Innovation", Rob Carlson, The Scientist, 25(1), p. 24, 1 January, 2011.

Robert Carlson, Biology is Technology: The Promise, Peril, and New Business of Engineering Life, 2010, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

Robert Carlson, "The Market Value of GM Crops", Nature Biotechnology, 27, 984 (2009).

Robert Carlson, "The Changing Economics of DNA Synthesis", Nature Biotechnology, 27, 1091 - 1094 (2009).

Robert Carlson, Shih-hui Chao, and John Koschwanez, "Fabrication of Lab-on-a-Chip Devices using Micrsoscale PLasma-Activated Templating (microPLAT)", in Lab on a Chip Technology (Vol 1): Fabrication and Microfluidics, 2009, K. Herold and A. Rasooly, Eds, Caister Academic Press, Norfolk, UK.

Robert Carlson, "The new biofactories", in What Matters, 2009, McKinsey and Company.

John H. Koschwanez, Robert H. Carlson, Deirdre R. Meldrum, "Thin PDMS Films Using Long Spin Times or Tert-Butyl Alcohol as a Solvent", PLoS ONE, 4(2), Feb  2009, e4572.

Robert Carlson, "Tracking the spread of biological technologies", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, November 2008.

Stephen Aldrich, James Newcomb, and Robert Carlson, "Scenarios for the future of synthetic biology", Indust Biotech, 4(1), Spring 2008.

Stephen Aldrich, James Newcomb, and Robert Carlson, The Big Squeeze: New Realities for Food and Fuel Markets, 2008, Bio Economic Research Associates.

John H. Koschwanez, Robert H. Carlson, and Deirdre R. Meldrum, "Easily fabricated magnetic traps for single-cell application", Review of Scientific Instruments, 78, 2007, p. 044301.􏰁

Shih-hui Chao, Robert Carlson, and Deirdre R. Meldrum, "Rapid fabrication of microchannels using microscale plasma activated templating (mPLAT) generated water molds", Lab on a Chip, 2007, 7, p. 641-643.

Shih-hui Chao, Robert Carlson, and Deirdre Meldrum, "PDMS Microlens Array Fabrication Using Water Droplets", Proceedings of MicroTAS 2007, Paris, France, October 2007.

Robert Carlson and Deidre Meldrum, "Low Power and Low Cost Temperature and Fluid Controld in PDMS Microfluidic Devices", Proceedings of MicroTAS 2007, Paris, France, October 2007.

Robert Carlson, "Laying the foundations for a bio-economy", Syst Synth Biol, 2007, 1(3), p. 109-17.

James Newcomb, Robert Carlson, and Stephen Aldrich, Genome Synthesis and Design Futures: Implications for the U.S. Economy. 2007, Bio Economic Research Associates.

John Koschwanez, Jim Wolfe, Mark Holl, Robert Carlson, and Deirdre Meldrum, "Automated, Biomechatronic System to Study Single Cell Aging," Proceedings of The first IEEE / RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, Pisa, IT, November, 2006.

Robert Carlson, John Koschwanez, and Deirdre Meldrum, "Novel Material Patterning for Electronic and Magnetic Components on PDMS," Proceedings of MicroTAS 2005, Boston, MA, October 2005.

Robert Carlson and Deirdre Meldrum, "Electrostatic Actuators Composed of Extensible Graphite-PDMS Composite Membranes", Proceedings of MicroTAS 2005, Boston, MA, October 2005.

John Koschwanez, Mark Holl, Robert Carlson, Michael McMurray, Daniel Gottschling, and Deirdre Meldrum,"Automated Lifetime Analysis of a Single Yeast Cell", Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Edmonton, CAN, August, 2005.

S. H. Chao, M. R. Holl, J. H. Koschwanez, R. H. Carlson, L. S. Jang, and D. R. Meldrum, "Velocity Measurement in Microchannels with a Laser Scanning Microscope and Particle Linear Image Velocimetry", Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 1(2), 2005, pp 155-160.

Ian Burbulis, Kumiko Yamaguch, Andrew Gordon, Robert Carlson, and Roger Brent, "Using protein-DNA chimeras to detect and count small numbers of molecules", Nature Methods, 2(1), 2005, p. 31 - 37 .

Robert Carlson, "Synthetic Biology 1.0", Future Brief, September, 2005.  

Robert Carlson, "Splice It Yourself", Wired, May, 2005.

S. H. Chao, M. R. Holl, J. H. Koschwanez, R. H. Carlson, and D. R. Meldrum, "Transient Microfluidic Velocity Measurement and Particle Characterization with a Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope", MicroTAS 2004, Boston, MA.

S. H. Chao, M. R. Holl, J. H. Koschwanez, R. H. Carlson, L. S. Jang, and D. R. Meldrum, 'Velocity Measurement in Microchannels with a Laser Scanning Microscope and Particle Linear Image Velocimetry", ASME 2nd International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels, June 17, (2004), p. 925-930.

Robert Carlson, "The Pace and Proliferation of Biological Technologies," Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, 1:3, 2003.

What's Next? Exploring the New Terrain for Business, Eamonn Kelly, Peter Leyden, and Members of the Global Business Network, 2002, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, MA.

"Biology Becomes Predictive: A Conversation with Robert Carlson," an interview conducted by Peter Leyden, published by the Global Business Network, 2002.

Robert Carlson, "Biological Technology in 2050," Silver Prize, The Shell/Economist Writing Competition. Published in IEEE Spectrum, May, 2001, as "Open-Source Biology and its Impact on Industry". Available at:  www.synthesis.cc and www.shelleconomistprize.com

Robert Carlson and Roger Brent, "Double-stranded DNA arrays: next steps in the surface campaign," Nature Biotechnology, (17), June, 1999, p. 536-537.

Robert H. Carlson, Christopher Gabel, Shirley Chan and Robert H. Austin, "Activation and Sorting of Human White Blood Cells," Biomedical Microdevices, 1:1, 1998, p. 39-47.

Robert H. Carlson, Christopher Gabel, Shirley Chan, Robert H. Austin, James P. Brody, James Winkelman, "Hydrodynamic Activation and Fractionation of White Blood Cells," Physical Review Letters, 79(11), 1997, p. 2149-2152.

Robert H. Carlson, "Deformation Activation of Human Leukocytes," Doctoral Dissertation, Princeton Univ., 1997.

Austin, R.H.; Carlson, R.H.; Chan, S.S.; Knight, J.; Turner, S.; Craighead, H. "Micro and nanopore structures for biological applications", Solid State Sensors and Actuators, 1997, 2, p. 1303-1305.

R.R. de Ruyter van Steveninck, W. Bialek, M. Potters, R.H. Carlson, G. Lewen, "Optimal Motion Computation in the Blowfly Visual System," Natural and Artificial Parallel Computation: Proceedings of the Fifth NEC Research Symposium, SIAM, 1996, p. 21-42.

de Ruyter Van Steveninck, R.R.; Bialek, W.; Potters, M.; Carlson, R.H.; "Statistical adaptation and optimal estimation in movement computation by the blowfly visual system", 1994 IEEE International Conference on 'Humans, Information and Technology', Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 1994, 2-5 Oct., vol.1, p. 302-307

Reviews

Review of Redesigning Humans by Gregory Stock, IEEE Spectrum, December 2002.

Review of Digital Biology by Peter Bentley, IEEE Spectrum, December 2002.