Munich, 8. January 2011. About 5000 people have already signed the petition “Call to protect the environment from synthetic organisms”. The Testbiotech initiative began in June 2010 and is supported by eight other institutions. It is calling for strict legal regulations to protect the environment from synthetic organisms, for permanent control of laboratories and a moratorium on public funding for synthetic biology. It is probably the first time that signatures on this issue have been collected nationally and internationally. Synthetic biology is a newly developed technology enabling the creation of new artificial organisms. Possible applications go far beyond current genetic engineering procedures.