ASM President Bonnie Bassler was invited to speak at the 8 July meeting of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, which considered the topic of synthetic biology.  Following the announcement in May of a paper describing a self-replicating cell containing an entirely synthetic genome, President Obama asked the Commission to issue a report within six months and to recommend to him any actions it thinks the federal government should take to maximize benefits and minimize risks associated with this technology, while identifying appropriate ethical boundaries. Bassler spoke about the engineering perspective in comparison with the biological and genetic sciences and explained how approaches represented by synthetic biology differ from other approaches in biological manipulation. She also covered what has been accomplished in the field and important obstacles to the advancement of synthetic biology. The meeting is archived on the Commission website at http://www.bioethics.gov.