1 Synthetic biology in health and disease -- 2 Synthetic Biology: Solving the Pharmaceutical Indus-try’s Innovation Problems? -- 3 Synthetic biology and global health in the age of intellectual property -- 4 Synthetic biology and IP: how do definitions of "products of nature" affect its implications for health? -- 5 Synthetic biology, protection of human health and freedom of scientific research. From biotech patents to open source models: managing human genetics resources -- 6 Patents and living matter: the construction of a patent system attractive to Biotechnology -- 7 Patents Originating in Human Tissue and Data: questions on benefit creating and benefit sharing, on morality and property -- 8 Patenting Synbio in Anglo-America and Europe: Chaos or Opportunity -- 9 Synthetic Biology: Challenges and Legal Questions -- 10 Exclusions and Exceptions to Patent Eligibility Revisited: Examining the Political Functions of the "Discovery" and "Ordre Public" Clauses in the European Patent Convention with Special Respect to Synthetic Biology -- 11 Patentability, Synthetic Biology and human genome -- 12 Patentability of synthetic biology under the European Patent Convention (EPC) -- 13 Synthetic Biology and IP Rights: In Defence of the Patent System -- 14 Stepping Stones: Extending the Open Source Idea to Synthetic Biology -- Index.

Since 2010, the Inter-University Chair in Law and the Human Genome has been involved in a EU 7th Framework Programme funded project called SYBHEL, leading work package 5. Its aim is to face the issues related to Synthetic Biology and Intellectual Property Rights. During the period since its initiation, two international workshops devoted to this topic have been organized, collecting a number of directly-related, high-level unpublished papers redacted by some of the most prominent experts in this field. Thus, we considered that it would be extremely important and interesting to have all the work gathered in a unique volume, which would be the first book exclusively dedicated to the analysis of the implications of Synbio may and the currently existing intellectual property rights system.